Katherine Calloway - Böcker

Guiding readers through the diverse forms of natural theology expressed in seventeenth-century English literature, Katherine Calloway reveals how, in ways that have not yet been fully recognized, authors such as Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Cavendish, Hutchinson, Milton, Marvell, and Bunyan describe, promote, challenge, and even practice natural theology in their poetic works. She simultaneously improves our understanding of an important and still-influential intellectual movement and deepens our appreciation of multiple major literary works. "Natural theology," as it was popularly understood, changed dramatically in England over the seventeenth century, from the application of natural light to divine things to a newer, more brittle, understanding of the enterprise as the exclusive use of reason and observation to prove theological conclusions outside of any context of faith. These poets profoundly complicate the story, collectively demonstrating that some forms of natural theology lend themselves to poetry or imaginative literature rather than prose.

This book advances the conversation about the presence, aesthetic appropriation, and re-interpretation of the foundational English author John Bunyan (1628–1688), whose works and legend have had a vibrant afterlife in visual art.Focusing on the global reach of Bunyan’s works and legend through multiple media and cultural adaptations provides a unique opportunity to discover the varied and generative influence of Bunyan on cultures past and present, promoting a more diverse appreciation of Bunyan's unparalleled reach. The contributors also foster opportunities to discuss the role of intermediality in contemporary re-appropriations of early modern literature in the context of globalization, as well as a critical exploration of Bunyanic presence in global contemporary art via intertextual and intermedial relations.