Citizens of Somewhere Else: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James

by Dan McCall

I am a citizen of somewhere else, proclaimed Nathaniel Hawthorne in his preface to The Scarlet Letter. In many ways, Henry James shared that citizenship. Intrigued by their resolute stance as outsiders, Dan McCall here reassesses these two quintessentially American writers. He focuses on their works and on their connections to American history and culture. Adopting an informal, conversational tone, McCall invites us to join him in a reading of some of Hawthorne's and James's masterpieces―not only The Scarlet Letter and The Portrait of a Lady but their great short stories, extensive notebooks, and other novels as well. He explains the significance of James's book Hawthorne, shows the influence of Emerson on both writers, and conveys throughout James's imaginative debt to Hawthorne. He concludes by comparing their views on what it means to be an American writer. More than a knowledgeable and sensitive guide to two great American literary figures, Citizens of Somewhere Else offers keen observations about reading in general and the way literature is taught in colleges and universities today―suggesting that modern critics are often more concerned with their own agendas than with the substance of the works they analyze. Through McCall's eyes we gain a renewed appreciation both of James and Hawthorne and of the insights that criticism can bring to literature.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Dan received his Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, later attending Columbia University for his PhD. Upon graduation in 1966, he came to Cornell University where he taught American literature and creative writing to generations of Cornell students over the next 40 years. He is the author of several novels, including Jack the Bear (1974), Beecher (1979), Bluebird Canyon (1983), Triphammer (1990), and Messenger Bird (1993). Jack the Bear was translated into over a dozen languages, and was released as a 20th Century Fox film in 1993, starring Gary Sinise, Reese Witherspoon, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, among others. His critical and scholarly books include The Example of Richard Wright (1969), The Silence of Bartleby (1989), Citizens of Somewhere Else (1999) and the Norton Critical Edition of Melville's Short Novels (2002).

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, to borrow a phrase from someone I used to know, reading lit crit is 'like eating soup with a fork.' But if it makes me want to just go read the literature in question, it's accomplished its mission. I liked this book and I liked that he was not afraid to call bullshit on some critics who just got carried away making something out of nothing. Sometimes the story is just the story and not a coded message, and you appreciate a book better if you're just reading it and not also trying to discern some subtext.