Through the thwarted plotlines, genealogical interruptions, and terminated ideas of Poe's Dupin trilogy and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance, these authors consider new concepts around race, reproduction, and American exceptionalism.
Menstruation as Symbolic Economy in Pynchon, Faulkner, and Morrison
Exploring the Puritan view of America as a return to Eden, this book examines the themes of cyclical regeneration and damnation in 20th-century literature. It introduces a semiotics of menstruation that shapes the portrayal of a feminine America, suggesting that the nation embodies both the Fall and the Curse of Eve. Through analyses of works by Thomas Pynchon, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison, the author reveals how these novels connect the figure of the menstruating woman to America's violent history and its potential for redemption.