“A respectable narrative”: The Viral Load in “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe”

Murray, Hannah Lauren ORCID: 0000-0002-4956-5235 (2022) “A respectable narrative”: The Viral Load in “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe”. Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, 48 (1). pp. 50-66.

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Abstract

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p>This article considers the authority and social currency given to rumor and viral news in Hawthorne’s “Mr Higginbotham’s Catastrophe.” As previous critics have noted, Hawthorne ridicules the sensational antebellum press that peddles fabricated racial conspiracy for profit. Telling and retelling Higginbotham’s sensational “murder” at the hands of an Irishman and an “Ethiopian,” peddler Dominicus Pike’s oral tale exploits racial and class stereotype to garner attention and sales. I argue that Pike’s identity depends on the ongoing transmission of his “respectable narrative.” The creation and control of a narrative is central to Pike’s idea of a respectable self and desires for cultural capital and social mobility that depend on his story of race and class upheaval being believed, even in the face of compelling competing testimony. Mutating from gossip, to oral story, to print media, Pike’s viral load increases at each occasion until his sense of identity and self-making hinges on Higginbotham’s unmaking, the specter of which haunts him as texts progresses. Hawthorne’s comic short story is a potent reminder of how the individual’s identity is bolstered by—yet also dependent on—the satisfying narratives of rumor and conspiracy.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	03 May 2022 14:19
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2024 16:23
DOI:	10.5325/nathhawtrevi.48.1.0050
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3154149