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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910788307303321 |
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Autore |
Dolan Frances E (Frances Elizabeth), <1960-> |
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Titolo |
True relations [[electronic resource] ] : reading, literature, and evidence in seventeenth-century England / / Frances E. Dolan |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2013 |
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ISBN |
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Edizione |
[1st ed.] |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (340 p.) |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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History - Methodology |
Reading - Social aspects |
Truth - Social aspects |
Great Britain History Stuarts, 1603-1714 Historiography |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Note generali |
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Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Front matter -- 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 |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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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 |
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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. |
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