In the introduction to her 1983 book The Puritan Conversion Narrative: The Beginnings of American Expression, Patricia Caldwell maps out some significant differences between British and American conversion narratives. According to her, the experience of conversion for English converts was often conveyed in very personal terms: women and men used childbirth and deliverance literally and figuratively to explain their new-found sense of godliness. Further, when they described their experience, it was often expressed in terms of movement down into and out of the body and selfhood. Dreams and visions also played a frequent role (recall that in Grace Abounding Bunyan records a dream he had). These British narratives usually contained a sense of closure, an end to striving, their authors expressing a yearning for refuge, solace, and a happy ending (i.e., heavenly assurance).
American narratives, by contrast, omitted the language of childbirth and deliverance. In place of the movement away from the body and the self, these narratives often referred to travel and migration; converts often recalled their actual experience of migration to New England as a central moment in their experience, and they often wrote and/or spoke in terms of a movement across physical and spiritual geography. Unlike many of the British texts, American converts often closely tied their narratives to Scripture, with biblical verses often becoming structural elements of the narrative. Lastly, after the literal and figurative movement experienced by the congregants, a feeling of discontent, dissatisfaction, and unfulfilled spiritual desire (i.e., no heavenly assurance) remained with them. Thus, Thomas Shepard's constant doubts about his soul's status and Anne Bradstreet's perplexity over failing to feel a sense of "constant joy in my pilgrimage and refreshing which I supposed most of the servants of God have" (from "To My Dear Children") was common to many New England Puritans.
Caldwell reminds us that a genre which might on the surface appear to be homogeneous in reality contains diverse and complex elements.
This is extremely interesting. In Caldwell's work does she relate the differences in the narratives to environment at all? It seems like the differing senses of spiritual assurance might be related to differing conditions in England and the New World. Could the trials of a new and uncharted wilderness have translated into greater doubt and discontent amongst American Puritans? Could the sense of closure in British narratives arise from a greater sense of certainty living in the more known and developed (in comparison to America) England? It seems like the different conditions of the two environments might have helped elicit different narratives from the Puritans living in them.
ReplyDeleteYuma8244 is Cody by the way, it made me pick a username in order to post.
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