The Writing of John Bunyan

This book prises open the name 'John Bunyan' in order to develop a new method of analysing the histories of authorship and authority. The Writing of John Bunyan focuses on a range of moments within the histories of specific discursive formations which demand and produce particular figures of authority to underwrite unequal power relations. These are the histories of authorship, of individualism, patriarchy and imperialism: different and discrete histories which nevertheless intersect...
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This book prises open the name 'John Bunyan' in order to develop a new method of analysing the histories of authorship and authority. The Writing of John Bunyan focuses on a range of moments within the histories of specific discursive formations which demand and produce particular figures of authority to underwrite unequal power relations. These are the histories of authorship, of individualism, patriarchy and imperialism: different and discrete histories which nevertheless intersect and overlap in the maintenance and contestation of specific social and cultural orders.Through textual analysis of specific instances of the operations of power in the production, reception and dissemination of Bunyan's writings, The Writing of John Bunyan investigates the intersection of political and cultural authorities and the forces which have shaped currently dominant understandings of subjectivity. The texts and contexts analysed range from those of seventeenth-century nonconformity to nineteenth-century evangelism and twentieth-century literary criticism.