Multimedia Related to Literary Links between Hawthorne and Melville

Photograph of Herman Melville, 1861 (courtesy of ...)

• Audio excerpts from the lecture "The Meanings of Hawthorne's Women," by Smith College Professor Richard H. Millington, presented at the House of the Seven Gables Historic Site (Turner House), Salem, Massachusetts, 8 September 2000
  Professor Millington's lecture "The Meanings of Hawthorne's Women" connects most clearly with the relationship between Hawthorne and Melville when he notes that "Melville's famous label-'Hawthorne: a Problem'-seems to belong with special force to this whole question of identification with women-of vicarious femininity or feminism in Hawthorne's work." While Millington necessarily leaves open many of the questions that can be raised about his topic, he persuasively shows that Hawthorne identified in many ways with women in his work whereas he lacked any corresponding advocacy for women in the real world. The following excerpts from Millington's lecture develop the concept of Hawthorne's "imaginary femininity."

• Excerpt from lecture, "Hawthorne and Melville" by David B. Kesterson, delivered in Salem, Massachusetts on September 23, 2000
  
  Here David Kesterson comments upon the fact that it was Hawthorne's fascination with and exploration of the idea of evil that so captivated the younger Herman Melville. In Melville's comments, Kesterson captures Melville's idea that no "deeply thinking mind" is ever completely free from a consideration of evil.