The Temptation of Kitsch: The Fall of Hawthorne‪.‬

But more and more, as she grew familiar with the miracles of art that enrich so many galleries in Rome, Hilda had ceased to consider herself as an original artist. No wonder that this change should have befallen her. The Marble Faun (1) Richard Brodhead has insisted on Hawthorne's "touristic shame," mentioning his inability to adopt the official ecstasy mandated by the aura of European masterpieces. Brodhead affirms that The Marble Faun appears as the symptom of Hawthorne's confusion over the cultural change at work at the time. (2) The late 1850s were indeed announcing significant changes in various domains: the political turmoil in the U.S. foreshadowed the Civil War, the interlude of the "American Renaissance" described by F. O. Matthiessen was already a thing of the past and, on a personal level, Hawthorne was not to publish any fiction after his Italian experience. I would like to argue that Hawthorne was not merely fatigued but had become aware that the rules of the literary game were being deeply modified and that writing as he had envisaged it could not last any longer.