ABSTRACT
The Gardner's writings 'the criticism as well as the fiction' reveals a deep-seated preoccupation with sin and guilt rooted in the Calvinist obsession with individual worthiness for salvation. Gardner's treatment of sexuality is most successful when least apparent, when it is alluded to rather than described outright, when it either occurs offstage, or can be chastely assumed not to occur at all. Samuel Coale explains that the Gardner's fiction belongs to the American romance tradition, a genre largely defined by the Manichean dualisms that result from the 'clash' of pastoral and Calvinist myths. Gardner's high-minded definition of 'true art' echoes the typically Puritan belief in the 'purposefulness and instructive intent' of writing. It is precisely this need that is so evident in Gardner's 'shameful' handling of sexuality in the fiction, in his prurient interest in and policing of grotesque bodies, and in his obsession with purity and wholeness.
