Gender-Based Violence And The Resilience of Femininity In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Story 'The Birthmark'

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2019 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Literatur, Note: 1,7, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Veranstaltung: Literature, Culture, and Media in American Society Literary Representations: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: I will analyze the literary reproduction of gender-based violence within the short story with a focus on mental and physical abuse. As I will illustrate in this paper, it becomes apparent that the conflict of gender-based violence can be analyzed and decoded as a representative and broader conflict which links feminity to nature and masculinity to science. November the 25th marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is a day designated by the United Nation General Assembly that shall bring awareness to these issues that are globally omnipresent regardless of religion, culture, or economic status of a particular country. Being a sad historic and cultural constant, the issue is also reproduced in literature. Violence against Women or gender-based violence is oftentimes entangled with the conceptualization of masculinity and therefore ever too often overlooked as a particular issue and therefore seldom identified or analyzed as such. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, The Birthmark which was published in 1844 in his short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse the topic of gender construction and gender-based violence are also discussed, partly overt sometimes rather covert. Interestingly, yet in true transcendentalist fashion, gender, and nature, man and technique are brought together presenting a suspenseful conflict. Whereas the physical abuse in the short story is quite overt other forms of abuse such as mental abuse are way more subtle. After giving a short overview of the definition of gender-based violence, I will analyze the literary reproduction of gender-based violence within the short story with a focus on mental and physical abuse. As I will illustrate in this paper, it becomes apparent that the conflict of gender-based violence can be analyzed and decoded as a representative and broader conflict which links feminity to nature and masculinity to science.