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True Relations : Reading, Literature, and Evidence in Seventeenth-Century England / Frances E. Dolan.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (344 p.) : 10 illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812244854
  • 9780812207798
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 941.061 23
LOC classification:
  • D16 .D55 2013
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Note on Spelling -- Introduction -- Part I. Crises of Evidence -- Chapter 1. True and Perfect Relations -- Chapter 2. Sham Stories and Credible Relations -- Chapter 3. A True and Faithful Account? -- Part II. Genres of Evidence -- Chapter 4. First- Person Relations -- Chapter 5. The Rule of Relation -- Chapter 6. Relational Truths -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments
Summary: In the motley ranks of seventeenth-century print, one often comes upon the title True Relation. Purportedly true relations describe monsters, miracles, disasters, crimes, trials, and apparitions. They also convey discoveries achieved through exploration or experiment. Contemporaries relied on such accounts for access to information even as they distrusted them; scholars today share both their dependency and their doubt. What we take as evidence, Frances E. Dolan argues, often raises more questions than it answers. Although historians have tracked dramatic changes in evidentiary standards and practices in the period, these changes did not solve the problem of how to interpret true relations or ease the reliance on them. The burden remains on readers.Dolan connects early modern debates about textual evidence to recent discussions of the value of seventeenth-century texts as historical evidence. Then as now, she contends, literary techniques of analysis have proven central to staking and assessing truth claims. She addresses the kinds of texts that circulated about three traumatic events-the Gunpowder Plot, witchcraft prosecutions, and the London Fire-and looks at legal depositions, advice literature, and plays as genres of evidence that hover in a space between fact and fiction. Even as doubts linger about their documentary and literary value, scholars rely heavily on them. Confronting and exploring these doubts, Dolan makes a case for owning up to our agency in crafting true relations among the textual fragments that survive.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780812207798

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Note on Spelling -- Introduction -- Part I. Crises of Evidence -- Chapter 1. True and Perfect Relations -- Chapter 2. Sham Stories and Credible Relations -- Chapter 3. A True and Faithful Account? -- Part II. Genres of Evidence -- Chapter 4. First- Person Relations -- Chapter 5. The Rule of Relation -- Chapter 6. Relational Truths -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In the motley ranks of seventeenth-century print, one often comes upon the title True Relation. Purportedly true relations describe monsters, miracles, disasters, crimes, trials, and apparitions. They also convey discoveries achieved through exploration or experiment. Contemporaries relied on such accounts for access to information even as they distrusted them; scholars today share both their dependency and their doubt. What we take as evidence, Frances E. Dolan argues, often raises more questions than it answers. Although historians have tracked dramatic changes in evidentiary standards and practices in the period, these changes did not solve the problem of how to interpret true relations or ease the reliance on them. The burden remains on readers.Dolan connects early modern debates about textual evidence to recent discussions of the value of seventeenth-century texts as historical evidence. Then as now, she contends, literary techniques of analysis have proven central to staking and assessing truth claims. She addresses the kinds of texts that circulated about three traumatic events-the Gunpowder Plot, witchcraft prosecutions, and the London Fire-and looks at legal depositions, advice literature, and plays as genres of evidence that hover in a space between fact and fiction. Even as doubts linger about their documentary and literary value, scholars rely heavily on them. Confronting and exploring these doubts, Dolan makes a case for owning up to our agency in crafting true relations among the textual fragments that survive.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2022)