Literal Figures

A work on John Bunyan which explores the history and theory of representation inherent in his texts. Beginning with mainstream Puritan responses to a challenge to orthodoxy, the text concludes with an analysis of "The Pilgrim's Progress", which John Bunyan described as a "fall into Allegory". Thomas Luxon presents an analysis of key moments in the Reformation crisis of representation. Luxon demonstrates that the Protestant doctrine itself was a kind of allegory in hiding, one that enabled Puritans to forge a figural view of reality while championing the "literal" and the "historical". He argues that for Puritanism to survive its own literalistic, anti-symbolic and millenarian challenges, a "fall" back into allegory was inevitable. A work which should aid understanding of both the history and theory of representation and the work of John Bunyan, the text blends historical and critical methods to describe the features of early modern Protestant and Puritan culture.