{"id":4390,"date":"2018-03-30T12:35:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T17:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=4390"},"modified":"2018-03-30T12:39:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T17:39:55","slug":"books-tell-you-why-updike-and-the-scarlet-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2018\/03\/30\/books-tell-you-why-updike-and-the-scarlet-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Books Tell You Why: Updike and The Scarlet Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Updike scholars who know James Schiff’s John Updike Revisited<\/em> (1998) will find this familiar ground. But\u00a0Books Tell You Why<\/em>\u00a0recently published an article by Brian Hoey titled, \u201cHawthorne Heights: How John Updike Rewrote The Scarlet Letter<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d<\/strong> which focuses on Updike\u2019s reimagination of Hester Prynne in his novel S<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Hoey writes, \u201cThe novel was, in many ways, meant as a rebuttal to the critics who have questioned Updike\u2019s ability to create well-rounded female characters.\u201d Hoey notes that Updike strove \u201cfor a sympathetic portrait of middle-aged womanhood, while also having a little fun at the expense of enlightenment-seekers as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoey posits that \u201cany criticism of [Updike\u2019s] work gives him an opportunity to improve his craft.\u201d The Witches of Eastwick<\/em><\/a> was another attempt \u201cto write about women who did have careers of a sort\u201d and who were \u201cmuch more dynamic than the men\u201d\u2014issues that remain current today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the novel were reevaluated now, in an era where examinations of the ways in which society shames women seems especially<\/em> urgent,\u201d Hoey suggests, \u201cit would be found worthy of its inspiration.\u201d But he worries that \u201creaders would find that beneath Updike\u2019s trademark lyricism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full article here <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updike scholars who know James Schiff’s John Updike Revisited (1998) will find this familiar ground. But\u00a0Books Tell You Why\u00a0recently published an article by Brian Hoey titled, \u201cHawthorne Heights: How John Updike Rewrote The Scarlet Letter,\u201d which focuses on Updike\u2019s reimagination … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person-singular"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4395,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions\/4395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}