By analysing various works set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England, stemming from different periods, this thesis demonstrates that this historical period proves to be a fruitful allegorical...Show moreBy analysing various works set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England, stemming from different periods, this thesis demonstrates that this historical period proves to be a fruitful allegorical vehicle to critically reflect upon contemporary concerns of authoritarianism, and elements of inclusion and exclusion, such as the scapegoating and general position of marginalised groups within American society. It is foregrounded that Robert Eggers’ film The Witch (2015) builds on and continues a tradition in American Gothic fiction by revealing its close intertextual relations to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Gentle Boy” (1832), “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” (1832), “Young Goodman Brown” (1835), and The Scarlet Letter (1850), Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953), and Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba (1986). What decisively links these texts together is the centrality of the woods in each narrative as a space outside the restrictions of society, both in the Puritan period and contemporary times.Show less
