Oracular Ventriloquism: Political Theology in The Female American
This essay scrutinizes a scene of colonial religious conversion that appears in the pseudonymous 1767 novel, The Female American. The protagonist's use of ventriloquism and indigenous technology to create the illusion of divine intervention is considered in the light of Carl Schmitt's sugg...
| Subtitles: | Roundtable discussion: Political theology of literature |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
[2018]
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| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2018, Volume: 19, Issue: 7, Pages: 621-628 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Winkfield, Unca Eliza, The female American
/ Mission (international law
/ Colonialism
/ Schmitt, Carl 1888-1985
/ Political theology
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture CG Christianity and Politics KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KDE Anglican Church RJ Mission; missiology |
| Further subjects: | B
Decisionism
B Feminism B Narrative B Colonialism B ventriloquism B Idolatry B Fiction |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This essay scrutinizes a scene of colonial religious conversion that appears in the pseudonymous 1767 novel, The Female American. The protagonist's use of ventriloquism and indigenous technology to create the illusion of divine intervention is considered in the light of Carl Schmitt's suggestion that secular political power inherits and translates forms of pre-modern theological authority. The novel's dual investments in proto-feminist literary representation and Anglican missionary proselytism are in tension with one another and help to explain the central character's ambivalence toward her inventive mode of conversion. Hence, the novel dramatizes the Euro-colonial disavowal of theological and decisionist force while, at the same time, hinting at the democratizing potential of forms of fictional address. |
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| Item Description: | Das gedruckte Heft ist als Doppelheft erschienen: "Volume 19 Numbers 7-8 November-December 2018" |
| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1513069 |