Surveyors of Customs

In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, fired from Salem''s Custom House and returning to writing, reconceived his old job title, Surveyor of Customs, as his new one. Taking seriously this naming of the American author''s project, Joel Pfister argues that writers from Benjamin Franklin to Louise Erdrich can be read as critical "surveyors" of customs, culture, hegemony, capitalism''s emotional logic, and muc...