The viper on the hearth : Mormons, myths, and the construction of heresy / Terryl L. Givens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Givens, Terryl.

Series:

Religion in America series (Oxford University Press)

Religion in America series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Latter Day Saint churches--Controversial literature--History and criticism.

Latter Day Saint churches.

Latter Day Saint churches--Controversial literature.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--Controversial literature--History and criticism.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Controversial literature.

Physical Description:

x, 205 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1997.

Summary:

Nineteenth-century American writers frequently cast the Mormon as a stock villain in such fictional genres as mysteries, westerns, and popular romances. The Mormons were depicted as a violent and perverse people--the "viper on the hearth"--who sought to violate the domestic sphere of the mainstream. While other critics have mined the socio-political sources of anti-Mormonism, Givens is the first to reveal how popular fiction, in its attempt to deal with the sources and nature of this conflict, constructed an image of the Mormon as a religious and social "Other."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 168-196) and index.

ISBN:

0195101839

OCLC:

34476142