English
Beyond narrative: The conversion plot of John Dane's a declaration of remarkable providences
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The privileged place in early American literature currently held by personal narratives seems secure, despite the fact that extant texts do not often render a view of interiority that is familiar (or even intelligible) to the modern, secular reader. The earliest accounts of Puritan conversion prove particularly resistant to creating a sense of individual identity, largely because these narratives exhibit, in Edmund Morgan's words, a "pattern . . . so plain as to give the experiences the appearance of a stereotype" (91). The oral "confessions" required for membership in early New England gathered churches virtually guaranteed that at some point every Puritan "saint" would have cause to describe his or her own unique spiritual journey in terms of a recognizable, orthodox morphology.1 The brief, apparently formulaic, sometimes incomplete lay "confessions" pose the most extreme version of the problem that seems to stymie all modern readings of Puritan conversion narratives at some point or another. Whether composed by minister, poet, or virtually anonymous lay person, early autobiographical testimonies appear to emphasize scriptural proof-texts, vague details, and orthodox interpretation over the personalized rendition of experiential phenomenon, leading to the conclusion that the successful narrative of conversion is the one that subordinates subjective interpretation and biographical idiosyncrasy to scriptural citation and soteriological predictability.
Publication Title
Early American Literature
Publication Date
2005
Volume
40
Issue
2
ISSN
0012-8163
DOI
10.1353/eal.2005.0041
Keywords
Early American literature, Puritan conversion
Repository Citation
Neuman, Meredith Marie, "Beyond narrative: The conversion plot of John Dane's a declaration of remarkable providences" (2005). English. 27.
https://commons.clarku.edu/facenglish/27
