Pseudotranslation as Meta-allegory in Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories are known for their allegorical depth and complexity. But one of his most complex and multivalent tales, Rappaccini’s Daughter, was also presented on its first publication in 1844 as a pseudotranslation. Writing in a brief preface to the story as if he were an anonymous critic of his own work, Hawthorne refers to the tale’s author as M. de l’Aubepine (French for “Hawthorn”), whose story (set in Italy and entitled “Beatrice; ou la Belle Empoisonneuse”) has just been translated from the French. The preface’s ironic insistence on alter egos and the process of translation echoes the formal structures of allegory, in particular the multifarious allegory characteristic of Hawthorne’s own tales. As an allegory of his own allegorical process, Hawthorne’s use of pseudotranslation identifies and enacts the meaningful exchanges we make when we read across discourses, whether they are interpretive (from the literary to the critical), lingual (from French to English), or cultural (from Italian to French to Anglo-American).