Abstract

SIMONSON, Patricia. On Grecian Urns and Soap Bubbles: Transformations of Ekphrasis in The House of the Seven Gables. Lit. teor. hist. crit. [online]. 2015, vol.17, n.1, pp.69-94. ISSN 0123-5931.  https://doi.org/10.15446/lthc.v17n1.48686.

The article involves a double exercise in comparative literature. On the one hand, it explores the role of visual art in the narrative organization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. On the other hand, it examines the way in which Hawthorne "recycles" John Keats' use of unstable ekphrasis in his "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (where the English poet reflects on the problematic issue of artistic immortality and the status of the modern poet with respect to the ancient poets), in order to set forth a specifically American reflection on the role of the artist in society and on his own relationship to the European canon and the reading public in the United States.

Keywords : visual art; literary canon; ekphrasis; comparative literature; 19th century novel; realism.

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