Puritanism & Enlightenment

Question 1

Puritan literature: characteristics (5)

Answer 1

• Anything written is literature
• Content-based
• Allegorical and doctrinal
• Plaine style to be widely understood
  
  • Avoid superficial ornament
• Constant comparisons between Puritans and Biblical figures

Question 2

Puritan literature: functions (3)

Answer 2

• To preserve and spread knowledge
• Record history
• Affirm the community, its practices and ideas

Question 3

Puritan literature: main genres (3)

Answer 3

• Sermons
  - John Cotton, John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards
• Biographies and autobiographies
  - John Winthrop “Journals”
  - Thomas Sheppard “The Sincere Convert”
• History chronicles
  - William Bradfrod “Historie of the Plimmoth Plantantion”
  - Cotton Mather “Magnalia Christi Americana”

Question 4

Puritan literature: authors (6)

Answer 4

• John Cotton
• John Winthrop “Journals”
• Jonathan Edwards
• Thomas Shepard “The Sincere Convert”
• William Bradfrod “Historie of the Plimmoth Plantantion”
• Cotton Mather “Magnalia Christi Americana”

Question 5

Enlightenment writing: characteristics (3), topics, influences, authors (3)

Answer 5

• Practical, useful, didactic
• Topics: contemporary issues (political conflicts)
• Influenced by British authors such as Pope or Dryden

Authors:
- Thomas Paine “Common Sense”
- Thomas Jefferson
- Benjamin Franklin “Autobiography”