Protestant Autobiography in the Seventeenth-Century Anglophone World

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 16; p. 141
• Main Author: Searle, Alison
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2012
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Bunyan, John (1628-88); Donne, John (1572-1631); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

Suggesting that it is crucial to look beyond historical narratives shaped by national political identities, Lynch argues that the book trade and the relative mobility of ministers were significant factors of exchange and influence enabling the genre of 'autobiography' to act 'as an agent of circum-Atlantic community formation' (p. 4). Lynch's deliberate decision to avoid national political boundaries and explore the 'politically contestable', 'public . . . signfs]' of 'authentic identities]' throughout the Atlantic world extends the range and originality of her 'study of the validations of autobiographical truths' and the 'challenges of assuming and asserting a Protestant identity . . . when Protestantism lost its consensual definition' (p. 26). Eliot's attempt to form a gathered congregation amongst the Native Americans demonstrates 'how far the English were from having a method of validation adequate to cross-cultural conversion' (p. 164) and entailed that 'physical affect became the only criterion of authenticity the witnesses were equipped to judge' as various converts gave their testimonies (p. 165).