Annotated Bibliography

Bell, Michael Davitt. Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971.  Bell’s brief discussion of the story focuses on Hawthorne’s treatment of the Puritans through his fiction.  Bell draws a connection between Leonard murderous desire to kill his brother and the accusers at the Salem Witch Trials.

Brodwin, Stanley. “Hawthorne and the Function of History: A Reading of ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal (1974): 116-125.  Brodwin does not acknowledge any of the subversive, metafictional techniques in the story.  He believes that this story as an example of the redemptive power of history when rewritten by an artist.  While he states that the story proves the importance of using fiction to teach the past, he does not see the larger picture of using fiction to understand art and its role in reality of life.

Coffey, Dennis G. “Hawthorne’s ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’: The Artist Absolved.” ESQ 21.4 (1975): 230-239.  Coffey believes the story is cohesive and that it is Hawthorne’s imagination that allows the cohesion.  Most of the article is a basic analysis, which kept me asking, “So what?”  He waits until the last line for his thesis, and while it a good point about reality in fiction and fiction in reality, it is too brief and not connected to the rest of the article.

Currie, Mark, ed. Metafiction. London: Longman, 1995.  This book is a collection of essays about Metafiction.  It contains general essays about the theory, as well as reactions to specific metafictional novels.  In a field that does not have many books published, this collection is a real asset.

Dunne, Michael. Hawthorne’s Narrative Strategies. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1995.  Using Gerard Genette’s idea of diegetic narration, Dunne examines the layering of narration in the story.  He argues that by distancing himself from the creation of the story, Hawthorne is given freedom from literary conventions and reader expectations.

Easton, Alison. The Making of the Hawthorne Subject. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1996.  Easton includes two commentaries on “Alice Doane’s Appeal”.  The first is a psychological analysis of the release of unconscious impulses, and the second is the role story telling play in the work.

Fossum, Robert H. Hawthorne’s Inviolable Circle: The Problem of Time. Delano: Everett/Edwards, 1972.  Fossum gives a very basic analysis of the story by focusing on the theme: the sins of the past.  He does not explore in-depth the structure or focus on fiction-making.

Hennelly, Mark M., Jr. “‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’: Hawthorne’s Case Against the Artist.” Studies in American Fiction 6.2 (1978): 125-139.  This article focuses on what he calls “the fall of the artist.”  He argues that the narrator abuses his power over the audience in order to control and manipulate them.  However, he does not connect this back to history and the witch trials. 

Hutcheon, Linda. “Historiographic Metafiction.” Currie 71-91.  A good essay about metafiction and how its treatment of history differs from traditional historiography.  I used her idea about traditional narrative putting meaning on chaos and metafiction breaking this meaning and not offering any closure.

McCaffery, Larry. “The Art of Metafiction.” Currie 181-193.  While most of this essay focuses on the analysis of William Gass’s novel Willie Master’s Lonesome Wife, he does include a general discussion of metafiction as fiction that makes itself the subject of the story.  This idea fit well with my interpretation of “Alice Doane’s Appeal” because I believe that Hawthorne put fiction-making into the subject of the story.

Robinson, Douglas. “Metafiction and Heartfelt Memory: Narrative Balance in ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” ESQ 28.4 (1982): 213-219.  This is the most impressive article published on “Alice Doane’s Appeal.”  Robinson is one of the few critics who makes any connection between the witch trials and the danger of appealing to the heart without allowing fiction into the understanding of truth.  I agree with his argument that this story is showing the danger of fanatical thinking that only allows one vision of reality, instead of the many seen through fiction.  While he mentions metafiction briefly in his article, he does not have an extensive treatment of it.  He does not mention that metafiction is the study of fiction, reality, and how they relate, and that this is the basis of this story. 

Smith, R. McClure. “Void in the Narrative: The Seduction of the Reader in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” ATQ 5.2 (1991): 73-81.  Smith argues that the narrator seduces the reader to enter in the voids of the text and fill them.  This desire to for fulfillment is the appeal of the story, and is on going since the void cannot be interpreted and filled.  This idea of a non-interpretive void intrigued me.  It goes along with my idea of the inherent ambiguity of the story, but I see it more as a warning in connection with history and reality than a seduction technique.

Swann, Charles. “‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’: Or, How to Tell a Story.” Literature and History 5.1 (1977): 4-23. I agree with some of the points made in this article, such as the interrelation between fiction and history in the story.  Where I disagree is his conclusion that “Alice Doane’s Appeal” is didactic in its delivery of a moral at the end.  He believes that it is an appeal to the heart to bring about social change.

Swartzlander, Susan. “’Appealing to the Heart’: The Use of History and the Role in Fiction in ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” Studies in Short Fiction 25.2 (1988): 121-128.  This is a very basic analysis of the story that argues that history is brought into the present by an appeal to the heart.  This is one of many critics who place a positive spin on the story, while ignoring all the irony and subversion that is present.

Thompson, G.R. The Art of Authorial Presence: Hawthorne’s Provincial Tales. Durham: Duke UP, 1993.  The chapter on “Alice Doane’s Appeal” is a very impressive analysis of structure and narrative technique.  Thompson analysis each detail of the story to illustrate Hawthorne’s blending of truth and fiction, history and romance.  This is the most thorough and well thought out commentary on the story that I found.  Like Robinson, he also mentions metafiction, but does not connect postmodern theory to the themes in the story.

Ventura, Mary K. “‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’: The Seducer Revealed.” ATQ 10:1 (1996): 25-39.  This is a well-written article that argues that the primary narrator creates the secondary narrator in order to hide his sexual desire and rape of the ladies.  She focuses in on the seductive aspect of writing and the metafictional distancing from the sexual desires in the story.  While she does a thorough job of presenting her case, I think it is a limiting way of looking at the story.  The sexual tension and seduction is there, but I do not think the whole story revolves around it.  If this were true, then why use the context of the witch-hunting?

Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Belknap, 1963.  In a brief description of “Alice Doane’s Appeal”, Waggoner dismisses the structure as a tangled failure.  His focus is on Hawthorne’s use of the past as he argues that the purpose of the story is to bring the past alive in the present and to make the audience aware of the propensity to sin that has been inherited from the past.  Some of his ideas are good, but his analysis lacks depth and his conclusion takes the story at face value.

Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. London: Methuen, 1984.  This is an excellent resource for Metafiction.  Waugh gives a comprehensive and lucid explanation of this postmodern concept.  She covers most of the techniques employed by metafictional writers, and includes analysis of examples from many fictional works.  This book is the basis of my analysis of metafiction in Hawthorne’s short story.

Williamson, James L. “Vision and Revision in ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” ATQ 40 (1978): 345-351.  This critic compares the growth in the story from gothic to psychological gothic to the growth in Hawthorne’s writing career.  While it glosses over the complexity of the story, this article has an interesting, if not simple, concept.