The Puritan Literary Tradition

What is meant by the puritan literary tradition, and when did the idea of puritan literature, as distinct from puritan beliefs and practices, come into being? This volume addresses these questions by bringing together new research on a wide range of established and emerging literary subjects that help to articulate the puritan literary tradition, including: political polemic and the performing arts; conversion and new-world narratives; individual and corporate life-writings; histories of exile and women's history; book history and the translation and circulation of puritan literature abroad; puritan epistolary networks; discourses of puritan friendship; the historiography of puritanism defined through editing and publishing; doctrinal controversy; and the history of emotions. This essay collection proposes that a puritan literary tradition existed that was distinct from broader conceptions of early modern English and Protestant traditions and offers a nuanced account of the distinct and variegated contribution that puritanism has made to the construction of 'literature' as a concept in English. It ranges from the late sixteenth through to the early eighteenth century, and spans British, European, and American puritan cultures. It offers new analyses of well-known puritan writers such as Anne Bradstreet, John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, and John Milton, as well as less familiar figures, such as Mary Rowlandson and Joseph Hussey, and writers less often associated with puritanism, such as Andrew Marvell and Aphra Behn. The new approach adopted in this collection demonstrates the fascinating ways in which a puritan literary tradition was created through the critical innovations and reflections of these authors.