From Aeneas to the Shaman: My Kinsman, Major Molineux and…

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_8298
dc.title	From Aeneas to the Shaman: My Kinsman, Major Molineux and the Descent into the Underworld of the American Dream
dc.contributor.author	Botta Enrico
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-occidentale/2022/56/da-enea-allo-sciamano-my-kinsman-major-molineux-e/
dc.description.abstract	The article focuses on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832) and aims at demonstrating how the journey undertaken by his young character Robin constitutes a re-elaboration of the classic theme of the catabasis within the mid-nineteenth century American cultural context. Robin, the protagonist of a tale on the foundation of the United States, is engaged in an epic quest which drives him into the underworld of a society where the values of freedom, equality, and happiness are inter-mingled with corruption, violence and wicked patriotism. At the end of his adventure, Hawthorne’s hero joins a violent masquerade that seems to anticipate the ‘patriots’ attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 56 \| September 2022
dc.issued	2022-08-31
dc.dateAccepted	2022-04-29
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-02-15
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2499-1562
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2022/10/007
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	American epic literature
dc.subject	Catabasis
dc.subject	Nathaniel Hawthorne
dc.subject	National foundation
dc.subject	US Capitol Riot

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

From Aeneas to the Shaman: My Kinsman, Major Molineux and the Descent into the Underworld of the American Dream

Enrico Botta Università degli Studi di Verona, Italia

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abstract

The article focuses on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832) and aims at demonstrating how the journey undertaken by his young character Robin constitutes a re-elaboration of the classic theme of the catabasis within the mid-nineteenth century American cultural context. Robin, the protagonist of a tale on the foundation of the United States, is engaged in an epic quest which drives him into the underworld of a society where the values of freedom, equality, and happiness are inter-mingled with corruption, violence and wicked patriotism. At the end of his adventure, Hawthorne’s hero joins a violent masquerade that seems to anticipate the ‘patriots’ attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.

Published

Aug. 31, 2022

Accepted

April 29, 2022

Submitted

Feb. 15, 2022

Language

Keywords: US Capitol Riot • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Catabasis • National foundation • American epic literature

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2022/10/007

Copyright: © 2022 Enrico Botta. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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