Godly Letters

The Literature of the American Puritans
Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-268-02290-7
Verlag: University of Notre Dame Press

Buch, Englisch, 672 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1226 g

In ""Godly Letters"", Michael J. Colacurcio analyzes a treasury of works written by the first generation of seventeenth-century American Puritans. Arguing that insufficient scrutiny has been given to this important oeuvre, he calls for a reevaluation of the imaginative and creative qualities of America's early literature of inspired ecclesiological experiment, one that focuses on the quality of the works as well as the demanding theology they express. Colacurcio gives a detailed, richly contextualized account of the meaning of these ""godly letters"" in rhetorical, theological, and political terms. From his close readings of the major texts by the first generation of Puritans - including William Bradford, Thomas Hooker, Edward Johnson, John Winthrop, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton - he expertly illuminates qualities other studies have often overlooked. In his words, close study of the literature yields work ""comprehensive, circumspect, determined, subtle, energetic, relentlessly intellectual, playful in spite of their cultural prohibitions, in spite of themselves.[T]hey are in every way remarkable products of a culture that.assigned an extraordinarily high place to the life of words. "" Magisterial in sweep, ""Godly Letters"" is likely to stand as the definitive work on the Puritan literary achievement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Colacurcio, Michael J.

Über Autor(innen)

MICHAEL J. COLACURCIO is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.