Discourses of Martyrdom in English Literature, 1563-1694

Knott's study shows how the work of a series of seventeenth and eighteenth-century authors - Milton, Bunyan, Fox and Watts - engages with the concept of martyrdom, drawing on both scriptural accounts of apostolic martyrdom and the more recent and particularly protestant accounts of the heroes o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBunyan studies no. 6; p. 106
Main Author Strachan, John
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.1995
Subjects
British & Irish literature
Bunyan, John (1628-1688)
English language
English literature
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Summary:Knott's study shows how the work of a series of seventeenth and eighteenth-century authors - Milton, Bunyan, Fox and Watts - engages with the concept of martyrdom, drawing on both scriptural accounts of apostolic martyrdom and the more recent and particularly protestant accounts of the heroes of the Marian persecution found in the work of the sixteenth-century martyrologists Coverdale and Foxe. Much recent Renaissance criticism has been preoccupied with the 'Marks and Scarrs' of punishment and violent death, displaying a Foucauldian attention to punishment as a visible and theatrical symbol of the exercise of institutional power on the body of the individual. Whilst Foxe offers a specifically Anglican version of suffering and resistance, the Elizabethan Separatists Barrow and Greenwood co-opt the language of the Acts and Monuments in their repudiation of the Church of England's 'malignant persecuting synagogue'.
ISSN:0954-0970