The American Puritan Elegy: A Literary and Cultural Study

ISBN-13: 9780521662451 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 282 str.

Jeffrey A. Hammond; Albert Gelpi; Ross Posnock

Opis

Jeffrey Hammond's study of the funeral elegies of early New England reassesses a body of poems whose importance in their own time has been obscured by almost total neglect in ours. Hammond reconstructs the historical, theological and cultural contexts of these poems to demonstrate how they responded to Puritan views on a specific process of mourning. The elegies emerge, he argues, as performative scripts that consoled readers by shaping their experience. They shed new light on the emotional dimension of Puritanism and the important role of ritual in Puritan culture.

Recenzje

"Hammond's rich, erudite text is clearly addressed to academic peers...Hammond's achievement is considerable." American Literature

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Monuments enduring and otherwise; 2. Toward an anthropology of Puritan reading; 3. Weep for yourselves: the Puritan theology of mourning; 4. This potent fence: the holy sin of grief; 5. Lord, is it I?: Christic saints and apostolic mourners; 6. Diffusing all by pattern: the reading of saintly lives; Epilogue: aestheticising loss; Notes; Works Cited; Index.