{"title":"Representing American Culture","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"narratives-and-spaces-book-david-e-nye-9780859895569","title":"Narratives And Spaces","description":"\u003cp\u003eEarly Christians used charges of adultery, incest, and lascivious behavior to demonize their opponents, police insiders, resist pagan rulers, and define what it meant to be a Christian. Christians frequently claimed that they, and they alone were sexually virtuous, comparing themselves to those marked as outsiders, especially non-believers and heretics, who were said to be controlled by lust and unable to rein in their carnal desires. True or not, these charges allowed Christians to present themselves as different from and morally superior to those around them. \u003cbr\u003eThrough careful, innovative readings, Jennifer Knust explores the writings of Paul, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and other early Christian authors who argued that Christ alone made self-mastery possible. Rejection of Christ led to both immoral sexual behavior and, ultimately, alienation and punishment from God. Knust considers how Christian writers participated in a long tradition of rhetorical invective, a rhetoric that was often employed to defend status and difference. Christians borrowed, deployed, and reconfigured classical rhetorical techniques, turning them against their rulers to undercut their moral and political authority. Knust also examines the use of accusations of licentiousness in conflicts between rival groups of Christians. Portraying rival sects as depraved allowed accusers to claim their own group as representative of true Christianity. \u003cbr\u003eKnust's book also reveals the ways in which sexual slurs and their use in early Christian writings reflected cultural and gendered assumptions about what constituted purity, morality, and truth. In doing so, Abandoned to Lust highlights the complex interrelationships between sex, gender, and sexuality within the classical, biblical, and early-Christian traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49575563067665,"sku":"GOR010158762","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52482577465617,"sku":"NLS9780859895569","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0859895564.jpg?v=1751108034"},{"product_id":"narratives-and-spaces-book-david-e-nye-9780859895552","title":"Narratives And Spaces","description":"David Nye's Narratives and Spaces examines how photography, the railroad, electricity, space flight and the computer became central, yet often contradictory, parts of the way Americans construct and narrate their culture, whether as western settlers, consumers or tourists. The book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on topics at the centre of contemporary debate and draws on a wide range of cultural media.    This is a significant contribution to American cultural history, and like David Nye's previous award-winning books, is written to be accessible to a wide audience. It is the first volume in a new UEP series, Representing American Culture. This series exists to publish lively, accessible and up-to-date studies of the culture of the United States. Whether devoted to topics in popular, middlebrow or high culture, books in the series explore the ways in which ideological assumptions may be seen to be represented. The series is edited by Mick Gidley, Professor of American Literature at the University of Leeds.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52331833950481,"sku":"NLS9780859895552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780859895552.jpg?v=1758149609"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/representing-american-culture-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}