Research Catalog

Title

The story upon a hill : the Puritan myth in contemporary American fiction / Christopher Leise.

Author

Leise, Christopher, 1978-

Publication

Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 210 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• "In this provocative and thought-provoking volume, Christopher Leise sheds new light on modern American novelists who question not only the assumption that Puritans founded New England--and, by extension, American identity--but also whether Puritanism ever existed in the United States at all. The Story upon a Hill: The Puritan Myth in Contemporary American Fiction analyzes the work of several of the most important contemporary writers in the United States as reinterpreting commonplace narratives of the country's origins with a keen eye on the effects of inclusion and exclusion that Puritan myths promote. In 1989, Ronald Reagan recalled the words of Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, who imagined the colony as a "city upon a hill" for future nations to emulate. In Reagan's speech, Winthrop's signature rhetoric became an emblem of American idealism, and for many Americans, the Puritans' New England was the place where the United States forged its original identity. But what if Winthrop never gave that speech? What if he did not even write it? Historians cannot definitively answer these questions. In fact, no group that we refer to as American Puritans thought of themselves as Puritans. Rather, they were a group of dissident Christians often better defined by their disagreements than their shared beliefs. Literary scholars interested in Anglo-American literary production from the seventeenth century through the present, historians, and readers interested in how ideas about Christianity circulate in popular culture will find fascinating the ways in which William Gaddis, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, and Marilynne Robinson repurpose so-called Puritan forms of expression to forge a new narrative of New England's Congregationalist legacy in American letters. Works by Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, Toni Morrison, and others are also considered. The Story upon a Hill raises a provocative question: if the Puritans never existed as we understand them, what might American history look like in that context?"--
• "A timely study of contemporary American literature that highlights the everpresence of Puritan myths in American identity and culture"--

Subjects

• American fiction
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• National characteristics, American, in literature
• RELIGION > Christianity > Protestant
• Puritans in literature
• Puritans > United States > Influence
• LITERARY CRITICISM > American > General
• Puritans > Influence
• American fiction > 21st century > History and criticism
• American fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• Christianity and literature > United States
• 1900-2099
• United States

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• Title from cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 17-6898

ISBN

• 9780817319472
• 0817319476

LCCN

• 2016052376
• 40027280751

OCLC

975448296

Author

Leise, Christopher, 1978- author.

Title

The story upon a hill : the Puritan myth in contemporary American fiction / Christopher Leise.

Publisher

Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2017]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-2099

Other Standard Identifier

40027280751

Research Call Number

JFE 17-6898