The Interpretation of Material Shapes in Puritanism: A Study of Rhetoric, Prejudice, and ViolenceThe Interpretation of Material Shapes in Puritanism overturns many of our long-held assumptions about the social and artistic values of Protestantism. Dr Ann Kibbey offers a detailed analysis of the rhetoric of the Puritan plain style, centring her argument on the influential preacher John Cotton and discloses a general theory of figuration in the Protestant tradition that has been overlooked by literary critics, historians and sociologists alike. The author explores the immense variety of ways in which early Protestants in Europe and America granted significance to material shapes. Kibbery finds that in their perception of icons, their use of acoustic design in rhetoric and their interpretations of human beings as physical objects, early Protestants - and especially Puritans - worshipped the figurations of material life as privileged sources of meaning. In this book, Ann Kibbey draws conclusions far wider than her nominal subject, proposing that still-prevalent attitudes toward gender, culture and race were central to the fundamental beliefs of American Puritans. |
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The Interpretation of Material Shapes in Puritanism: A Study of Rhetoric ... Ann Kibbey No preview available - 2009 |
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acoustic Anne Hutchinson antinomian apocalyptic Auerbach authority belief Bercovitch biblical bloud Boston bride Calvin Cambridge Canticles Catholic Christ Christian church classical common bread consecrating conversion death deity describes discourse doctrine double bind England English Erich Auerbach example exegesis exposition expressed figurative language figurative meaning grace hearer Hutchinson hyperbole iconoclasts idea imagery implies important Institutio interpretation isocolon John Cotton literal and figurative literal meaning living icons living images locus London Luther marriage material objects material shapes metaphor metonymy ministers murder mystical body narrative Old Testament parabolical paradigm paronomasia Pequot War Perkins plain style poetic preached prejudice proper meaning prophecy propriety Protestant Puritan women Quintilian reference relation religion religious Revelation rhetorical figures sacramental Sacvan Bercovitch sanction Scripture sense sermons seventeenth century significance social Solomon soul sound design speech spiritual symbolic theology things threat tion transubstantiation tropes typology Underhill University Press verbal violence Wheelwright Winthrop words