The Puritan Literary Tradition

What is meant by the puritan literary tradition, and when did the idea of puritan literature, as distinct from puritan beliefs and practices, come into being? This volume addresses these questions by bringing together new research on a wide range of established and emerging literary subjects that help to articulate the puritan literary tradition, including: political polemic and the performing arts; conversion and new-world narratives; individual and corporate life-writings; histories of exile and women’s history; book history and the translation and circulation of puritan literature abroad; puritan epistolary networks; discourses of puritan friendship; the historiography of puritanism defined through editing and publishing; doctrinal controversy; and the history of emotions.

This essay collection proposes that a puritan literary tradition existed that was distinct from broader conceptions of early modern English and Protestant traditions and offers a nuanced account of the distinct and variegated contribution that puritanism has made to the construction of ’literature’ as a concept in English. It ranges from the late sixteenth through to the early eighteenth century, and spans British, European, and American puritan cultures. It offers new analyses of well-known puritan writers such as Anne Bradstreet, John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, and John Milton, as well as less familiar figures, such as Mary Rowlandson and Joseph Hussey, and writers less often associated with puritanism, such as Andrew Marvell and Aphra Behn. The new approach adopted in this collection demonstrates the fascinating ways in which a puritan literary tradition was created through the critical innovations and reflections of these authors.

Johanna Harris, Associate Professor, Western Civilisation Program, Australian Catholic University, Alison Searle, Associate Professor of Textual Studies, School of English, University of Leeds

Johanna Harris is Associate Professor of Literature in the Western Civilisation Program at the Australian Catholic University. Her research and publications focuses on the literature, religion, and politics of the early modern period, with particular interest in non-fictional prose, especially letters, manuscript culture, devotional writing, and puritanism. With Alison Searle, she is a general editor of The Complete Correspondence of Richard Baxter and a volume editor for The Oxford Traherne (both forthcoming with Oxford University Press).She joined the Australian Catholic University in 2023, after twelve years at the University of Exeter. Prior to this she was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Geneva, and stipendiary lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford.

Alison Searle is Associate Professor of Textual Studies at the University of Leeds. Her research and publications focus on epistolary culture, scholarly editing, and the relationship between literature and theology. Her most recent book is Pastoral Care Through Letters in the British Atlantic (Cambridge, 2023). She joined the School of English at the University of Leeds in 2016, prior to that she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney (2012-16), a research associate on The Complete Works of James Shirley at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (2008-12), and a visiting fellow at Queen Mary, University of London (2006is also a general editor (with Johanna Harris) of The Complete Correspondence of Richard Baxter (forthcoming with Oxford University Press).