Salem A Literary Profile: Themes and Motifs in the Depiction of Colonial and Contemporary Salem in American Fiction

To this day, Salem, Massachusetts, is synonymous with the witch trials of 1692. Their unique pace and structure has not only made the infamous town a strong cultural metaphor, but has generated countless novels, short stories, and plays over the past 200 years. This book marks the first comprehensive analysis of literary Salem and its historical as well as contemporary significance, from Nathaniel Hawthornes literature of the 19th century to Arthur Millers The Crucible to a growing corpus of contemporary fiction.