ANTEBELLUM AMERICAN IDEALISMS AND THEIR DISCONTENTS: MAD SCIENTISTS AND CHANGING MASCULINITIES IN RAPPACCINI`S DAUGHTER AND THE BELL-TOWER

Authors : Batıkan DEMİRTAŞ, Esra COKER KORPEZ

Pages : 132-149

View : 115 | Download : 134

Publication Date : 2023-04-28

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :As America swiftly transformed from being a virgin land of untouched wilderness to an infernal of industrialism, the definition of ‘manhood’ also rapidly changed. Unlike its artisan or aristocratic ancestors, the newly emerged capitalist man in the antebellum period, or in Michael Kimmel’s words the ‘Marketplace Man’ derived his masculine authority from his ability to acquire, accumulate and consume. This newly emerged manhood of antebellum America utilized and disregarded the old conventional ways of being; like a chameleon, it quickly blended into the competitive and mercantile fabric of the Marketplace. Respectively, this article by analyzing two short stories written in the antebellum period, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1844); and Herman Melville’s The Bell-Tower insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1856);, argues that the mad scientist figures in antebellum American literature are not only stereotypes but also masculine sexual personas through which the Marketplace Manhood is allegorized and criticized. In Rappaccini’s Daughter, the newly emerged masculine sexual persona of industrialized America is allegorized through two competitive marketplace mad scientists fervently seeking intelligence and progress. The competitive relationship between these two mad scientists, Rappaccini and Baglioni, deepens as their ravenous desire to eliminate each other becomes a signifier of ultimate manhood. This competitive relationship also demonstrates an emerging paradigm shift in the context of cultural discourses and changing masculinities, underlining the fact that acquisitive individualism became a vital sign of capitalist marketplace masculinity. Herman Melville’s short story The Bell-Tower, on the other hand, delves into the hierarchical relation between the Marketplace Man and the artisan group and also unfolds the technologizing of American society. The phallic tower that the protagonist Bannadonna builds exposes his desire to re-establish his masculine authority while the process of building the bell tower becomes the mechanism through which the capitalist man proletarianizes the artisan group. In short, by using Michael Kimmel’s triadic conceptualization of American Manhood, this article seeks to analyze Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter and Melville’s The Bell-Tower in order to demonstrate how mad scientist narratives have enabled writers of the Antebellum era to allegorically respond and then expose the emerging masculinities of their period.
Keywords : Çılgın Bilimadamı, İç Savaş Öncesi Amerika, Piyasa Erkekliği, Edinimci Bireycilik, Rappaccinis Daughter, The Bell Tower