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A Feminist Poet On Found Poetry In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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A Feminist Poet on Found Poetry in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

by Kimberly Burnham

5 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	3056 KB
Text-to-Speech	:	Enabled
Screen Reader	:	Supported
Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
Print length	:	15 pages
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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest as a punishment for adultery. This symbol of shame and isolation has been interpreted in many ways over the years, but one feminist poet has found a new way to explore its meaning through the use of found poetry.

Found poetry is a type of poetry that is created by taking words or phrases from an existing text and rearranging them to create a new poem. This technique can be used to highlight hidden meanings and perspectives in a text, and it can also be used to give voice to marginalized groups.

In her book, Feminist Poet On Found Poetry In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, poet Sarah Manguso uses found poetry to explore the hidden voices and perspectives of women in Hawthorne's novel. By taking words and phrases from the novel and rearranging them, Manguso creates new poems that challenge the traditional interpretations of The Scarlet Letter and offer a new perspective on the novel's themes of sin, guilt, and redemption.

One of the most striking things about Manguso's poems is the way they give voice to the women in The Scarlet Letter who are often silenced or marginalized. In the novel, Hester Prynne is the only female character who is given a significant amount of agency and development. The other women in the novel, such as her daughter Pearl and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale's wife, are often relegated to the background or treated as symbols rather than fully developed characters.

Through her found poetry, Manguso gives these women a chance to speak for themselves. She takes their words and phrases and uses them to create poems that explore their own experiences of sin, guilt, and redemption. In ng so, Manguso challenges the traditional interpretations of The Scarlet Letter and offers a new perspective on the novel's themes.

For example, in one of her poems, Manguso takes words and phrases from Hester Prynne's famous "black man" speech and rearranges them to create a new poem that explores Hester's own experience of sin and redemption.

In the novel, Hester tells the town's elders that she does not know who the father of her child is, but that he is a "black man." This statement has been interpreted in many ways over the years, but Manguso's poem suggests that Hester may be using the term "black man" as a metaphor for her own sin.

Manguso's poem begins with the line, "I am a black man," and it goes on to explore the ways in which Hester's sin has made her an outcast from society. The poem ends with the line, "I am a scarlet letter," which suggests that Hester's sin has become a permanent part of her identity.

Through her found poetry, Manguso gives Hester Prynne a chance to speak for herself and to explore her own experience of sin and redemption. In ng so, Manguso challenges the traditional interpretations of The Scarlet Letter and offers a new perspective on the novel's themes.

Feminist Poet On Found Poetry In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a groundbreaking work of feminist criticism that offers a new way to understand Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel. Through her use of found poetry, Sarah Manguso gives voice to the women in The Scarlet Letter who are often silenced or marginalized. In ng so, Manguso challenges the traditional interpretations of the novel and offers a new perspective on its themes of sin, guilt, and redemption.

A Feminist Poet on Found Poetry in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

by Kimberly Burnham

5 out of 5