The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (Religion in America)

Nineteenth-century American writers frequently cast the Mormon as a stock villain in such fictional genres as mysteries, westerns, and popular romances. The Mormons were depicted as a violent and perverse people—the viper on the hearth—who sought to violate the domestic sphere of the mainstream. While other critics have mined the socio-political sources of anti-Mormonism, Givens is the first to reveal how popular fiction, in its attempt to deal with the sources and nature of this conflict, constructed an image of the Mormon as a religious and social Other. Contents......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 Part I: Mormonism, Politics, and History......Page 22 1 "Out of the Sphere of Religion": The Sacred, the Profane, and the Mormons......Page 24 2 "This Upstart Sect": The Mormon Problem in American History......Page 42 3 "Manners, Habits, Customs, and Even Dialect": Sources of the Mormon Conflict......Page 57 4 "An Age of Humbugs": The Contemporary Scene......Page 77 5 "This Great Modern Abomination": Orthodoxy and Heresy in American Religion......Page 93 Part II: Mormonism and Fiction......Page 112 6 "Ground in the Presbyterian Smut Machine": The Popular Press, Fiction, and Moral Crusading......Page 114 7 "They Ain't Whites . . . They're Mormons": Fictive Responses to the Anxiety of Seduction......Page 144 8 "Murder and Mystery—Mormon Style": The Mormon Image in the Twentieth Century......Page 176 Notes......Page 191 B......Page 220 C......Page 221 G......Page 222 J......Page 223 M......Page 224 P......Page 225 S......Page 226 W......Page 227 Y......Page 228 Photographs......Page 36 "The Viper on the Hearth is the first full-length study to look at representations of Mormonism in popular fiction, enhancing our understanding of the religion's vexed relationship to American society. The book reconsiders the nature of Mormonism's encounter with mainstream religion, and asks how a category like "heresy" can operate in a pluralistic society. Examining the ways in which Mormons have been portrayed in popular culture, Givens's study demonstrates how fiction can respond to cultural conflicts and anxieties by refashioning heresy into a more appropriate target for moral and political crusades."--BOOK JACKET Nineteenth-century American writers frequently cast the Mormon as a stock villain in various genres of popular fiction. The Mormons were depicted as a violent and perverse people. Applying the methods of literary criticism, Givens shows how the image of the Mormon as a religious and social `Other' was constructed. Nineteenth-century American writers cast the Mormon as a villain in fictional genres. The Mormons were depicted as a violent people who sought to violate the domestic sphere of the mainstream. This work shows how popular fiction constructed an image of the Mormon as a religious and social ""other""