Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature
- The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I How to Read (in) Early America
- Part II Readings in Early America
- 7 Accident, Disaster, and Trauma
- 8 Settler Kitsch
- 9 Like a Prayer
- 10 Varieties of Bondage in the Early Atlantic
- 11 The Erotics of Early America
- Part III Early American Places
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
8 - Settler Kitsch
The Legacies of Puritanism in America
from Part II - Readings in Early America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature
- The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I How to Read (in) Early America
- Part II Readings in Early America
- 7 Accident, Disaster, and Trauma
- 8 Settler Kitsch
- 9 Like a Prayer
- 10 Varieties of Bondage in the Early Atlantic
- 11 The Erotics of Early America
- Part III Early American Places
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
What are the legacies of American Puritanism? The answers might surprise you. Somewhat paradoxically, these legacies are somehow both nearly invisible in the contemporary United States and also ubiquitous. On one hand, there is very little evidence of the theology or polity of seventeenth-century New England Puritans visible in today’s religious or political culture. It would be difficult to find an extant church offering a semblance of the services the Puritans attended, and even churches that claim a link to this time are quick to emphasize their evolution. At the same time, “puritan” persists in our culture as a byword for everything that is more repressive and less sexually evolved than we are. For instance, activists who want more freedom for nudity and sexual expression on social media often blame puritans for these restrictions. This differentiation between a contemporary Us and a puritan Them creates space for caricature that opens up space for what I call “settler kitsch,” an array of cartoonish, caricatured images of the settlers of New England, impossible to take seriously with their big hats and funny shoes. At the same time, these cartoons obscure an actual cognizance of Puritans by concealing the violence inherent in the settler colonial projects of Pilgrims and Puritans. As such, the principal legacies of Puritanism today are #freethenipple and settler kitsch.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature , pp. 132 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021