American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0721 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Hawthorne's Romance and His Preface to It
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The idea
Hawthorne insisted on calling his long fictions romances rather than novels, claiming the latitude to present truth under circumstances of the writer's own choosing rather than to keep to the probable. The distinction is his own, and the exam expects it attached to his name.
In practice
Romance claims latitude; the novel claims probability.
Where people slip
The term is a claim about permission.
Your place on the trail
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