Conversion Narratives in Early Modern England Tales of Turning [Hardcover]

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 genres relative stabilization in the 1650s. A cross confessional study analyzing work by both Protestant and Catholic writers, this book explores conversions 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.

Introduction.- Chapter 1: The Convert and the Book.- Chapter Two: Crafting the Convert.- Chapter 3: Narrative Topographies and the Geographies of Conversion.- Chapter 4: Corporeal Rhetoric: Perception and Proof in the Conversion Narrative.- Bibliography.

Places conversion at the heart of the structuring of the English language during a period in which English identities and cultural practices were being reformulated after the Reformation, and encounters with other lands and faith communities

Brings together the concerns of spiritual autobiography, literary studies and rhetoric with a new emphasis upon conversion and reveals the literary complexity of conversion narratives