Writing "To Conquer All Things": Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana" and the Quandary of "Copia."
This article analyzes the context of the book "Magnalia Christi Americana" by Cotton Mather and the quality of his writings. Ever since its first publication in 1702, critics have regularly censured the "Magnalia" for being a vainglorious attempt at displaying the author's rhetorical brilliance and...
| Publicado en: | Early American Literature Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 263 - 298 |
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| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
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University of North Carolina Press
Jun2004
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=13852892&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 13852892 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00128163 EAE jtl: Early American Literature issn: 00128163 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2004 vid: 39 iid: 2 pid: 2027 pub: University of North Carolina Press artinfo: ui: 13852892 10.1353/eal.2004.0032 ppf: 263 ppct: 35 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 216KB tig: atl: Writing "To Conquer All Things": Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana" and the Quandary of "Copia." aug: au: Stievermann, Jan affil: Universitüt Tübingen su: Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New England From Its First Planting, in the Year 1620, Unto the Year of Our Lord 1698 (Book) Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728 Criticism Neoclassicism (Literature) Intertextuality Revolutionary (Literary period) 19th century (Literary period) sug: subj: Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New England From Its First Planting, in the Year 1620, Unto the Year of Our Lord 1698 (Book) Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728 Criticism Neoclassicism (Literature) Intertextuality Revolutionary (Literary period) 19th century (Literary period) ab: This article analyzes the context of the book "Magnalia Christi Americana" by Cotton Mather and the quality of his writings. Ever since its first publication in 1702, critics have regularly censured the "Magnalia" for being a vainglorious attempt at displaying the author's rhetorical brilliance and universal erudition. Mather's belated piece of colonial or Puritan Baroque was often branded as an overly ornate conglomerate of learned references lacking in originality and coherence. Representatives of modern literary and cultural criticism have begun to reevaluate Mather's so thoroughly discredited technique of intertextual composition. In their interpretations these scholars have explained the peculiarly florid style of the "Magnalia" in terms of Mather's stubborn adherence to a baroque notion of rhetorical and literary perfection which was already beginning to give way to the new aesthetics of neoclassicism when the work was published. According to Mather's explanations in the General Introduction, the foremost representational object of the "Magnalia" is to exhibit and exalt God's limitless power by demonstrating how the glorious history of New England unfolds from his providential plan. This goal goes hand in hand with a literary portrayal of the first two generations of Puritan leaders, and particularly of their spiritual preceptors, who are depicted as exemplary executioners of God's grand design for the U.S. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Early American Literature is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Early American Literature holder: University of North Carolina Press dt: @attributes: year: 2004 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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