“Only a Light Wreath of The New-Fallen Snow”?: Ecogothic Tropes and the Diffractive Gaze in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Snow-Image”

In the article I discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ecological imagination as problematized in his lesser-known short story “The Snow-Image: A Childish Miracle” (1849). Although Hawthorne wrote for children, it carries a darker gothic undertone, illustrating problematic aspect of Romantic nature/culture division. The focus my inquiry are potential implications. analytical framework is taken from Andrew Smith and William Hughes’ edited collection Ecogothic (2013), which several scholars work towards definition an environmentally conscious variety genre. Using some their findings concepts along with selected ecocritical New Materialist theories, interrogate highly ambiguous shifting tropes nature reveal correlation between crisis that environment. argue central trope snow-child trajectory narrative conceal Frankensteinesque subplot employed to critically rethink transcendental experience.