Conversion Narratives in Early Modern England: Tales of Turning (Early Modern Literature in History)

This book is a study of English conversion narratives between 1580 and 1660. Focusing on the formal, stylistic properties of these texts, it argues that there is a direct correspondence between the spiritual and rhetorical turn. Furthermore, by focusing on a comparatively early period in the history of the conversion narrative the book charts for the first time writers’ experimentation and engagement with rhetorical theory before the genre’s relative stabilization in the 1650s. A cross confessional study analyzing work by both Protestant and Catholic writers, this book explores conversion’s relationship with reading; the links between conversion, eloquence, translation and trope; the conflation of spiritual movement with literal travel; and the use of the body as a site for spiritual knowledge and proof. Acknowledgements 8 Contents 10 Chapter 1 Introduction: Tales of Turning 11 Chapter 2 Take Up and Read: The Convert and the Book 38 Bibles in Parts and the Converted Reader 41 ‘How To’ Guides to Conversion 57 Exemplary Converts and Proselytising in Print 67 Conclusion 75 Chapter 3 Converting Souls and Words: Tropes, Eloquence and Translation 86 Persuading the Soul to Move: The Power of Metaphor and Simile 87 The Eloquent Convert 101 ‘Thou Art Translated’ 110 Conclusion 119 Chapter 4 Narrative Topographies and the Geographies of Conversion 128 ‘Base and Vulgar Spirits Houer Still About Home’: How to Travel 134 Curiosity and the Convert: The Magnetism of Rome 142 Mad Gadabouts and Prodigal Sons 150 Memory and Perpetual Motion 162 Conclusion 168 Chapter 5 Witnessing the Body: Corporeal Conversions 178 Bodies of Proof 181 Body Language: Gesture and Deportment 185 Weeping and Eating 196 Choreographing Conversion 209 Conclusion 213 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Bunyan’s Turn 221 Bibliography 230 Index 252 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction: Tales of Turning (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 1-27 Take Up and Read: The Convert and the Book (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 29-76 Converting Souls and Words: Tropes, Eloquence and Translation (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 77-118 Narrative Topographies and the Geographies of Conversion (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 119-168 Witnessing the Body: Corporeal Conversions (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 169-211 Conclusion: Bunyan’s Turn (Abigail Shinn)....Pages 213-221 Back Matter ....Pages 223-255