Mather, Cotton. (1663 - 1728).
L i f e
- colonist in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, New England, grandson of the Colony founders Richard Mather and John Cotton, and son of the influential minister Increase Mather
- received university education, studied medicine at Harvard, and became a clergymen and scholar
- realised the political, social, and economic realities of New England life at the turn of century were at odds with the original Puritan vision => aimed to revitalise the original religious mission
W o r k
Magnalia Christi Americana (1702):
= The Great Works of Christ in America, his major work, a climax of the historical prose in the genre of church history
- loosely constructed, mingles history and biography
- praises godly men and provides models of spirituality
- imprecise in chronology and dating, trims the facts to suit his purpose
- the most sustained jeremiad of the 17th century New England
(jeremiad = idealises the fathers and immediately punishes failures under the impending ultimate Judgement)
=> unfolds and asserts the meaning of the American nation
Bonifacus, an Essay upon the Good (1710):
- a manual for self-improvement
Theopolis Americana (1710):
- a rhapsodic prose hoping America to become the millennial city
Quote
"'Tis an Heavenly CITY, descending out of Heaven, from GOD. There is an Heavenly CITY, which the Great GOD, has Prepared for them, to whom He will be a God: A CITY to be inhabited by an Innumerable Company of Angels, and by the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect by a Resurrection from the Dead, with JESUS the Mediator of the New Covenant shining upon them: A CITY; where God shall dwell with men, God Himself shall be with them, and we shall Inherit all things".
From Theopolis Americana (1710).
Basics
(Portrait: Peter Pelham. Ca 1700. Source: Wikimedia Commons).
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Author
Cotton Mather. (1663 - 1728). American. -
Work
Clergyman. Author of Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). -
Genres
Chronicle. Didactic writing. Religious writing.
Literature
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. London: Penguin, 1991.
Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1994.
McQuade, Donald, gen.ed. The Harper American Literature. New York: Harper & Collins, 1996.
Ruland, Richard, Malcolm Bradbury. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997.
Vančura, Zdeněk, ed. Slovník spisovatelů: Spojené státy americké. Praha: Odeon, 1979.