Hawthorne and the State of War

This essay reconsiders Nathaniel Hawthorne's Civil War memoir, "Chiefly About War-Matters. By a Peaceable Man" (1862), in light of the radical transformation of the federal state under Lincoln. While critics have long recognized Hawthorne's political resistance to--and ironic deflation of--Union patriotism, I situate "War-matters" in a Union political culture of censorship aimed at repressing treasonous discourse. Hawthorne's account of his visit to the front lines analyzes the transformation of the wartime state and provides--through self-conscious parodies of Unionist censorship--new models for literary production and interpretation to engage the "state of exception."