jeremiad
The term Jeremiad comes originally and commonly from the biblical book of Lamentations . In literature, the term jeremiad denotes a work deploring general social decline . As a result, the term faded and became the general expression for lament , lamentation and often received a derogatory overtone. The term jeremiad has a special meaning for American culture; it is closely linked to American exceptionalism (belief in electedness).
origin
The prophecy of Jeremiah fell on deaf ears at first and was eventually fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem . The prophet Jeremiah was ascribed the authorship of the lamentations until the 19th century.
Literary use
Friedrich Schiller lamented the lack of subtlety among his German contemporaries in a poem entitled Jeremiade :
"Everything in Germany has worsened in prose and verse,
oh, and the golden age is far behind us!"
American jeremiad
The Puritans of New England emigrated with the intention of building a " city on the mountain " in America , which was to be a model above all for England. This theme, which relates to the Sermon on the Mount , goes back to the governor of the first New England colony, John Winthrop . Even the second generation of Puritans was accused in the sermons of that time of no longer fulfilling the required role model function. Among other things, moral violations were cited as evidence. The sermons then increasingly portrayed the wrath of God at the transgressions of the New Englanders; Harvest failures and Indian wars were interpreted as harbingers of the impending Last Judgment. The American jeremiad thus became a reflection of social tendencies with the aim of pointing out and correcting undesirable developments and further pursuing the ideal of the "Holy Commonwealth", which the Puritans had striven for.
Such jeremiads can be found in every era of American history, including Jonathan Edward , John Adams , Thomas Jefferson, and James Fenimore Cooper . The jeremiad shows a self-image as a religiously motivated economic and political experiment under constant danger.
The term has also found use in American literature , since the expectation of parousia that has been linked to America since the Puritans increasingly appears to many writers as an illusion in view of the social reality. Works by Norman Mailer (The Armies of the Night) , Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49) , Nathanael West (The Day of the Locust) and Hubert Selby (Last Exit to Brooklyn) were interpreted as jeremiads , but also older ones Works of American literature such as Herman Melville's The Confidence Man or William Faulkner's Southern Fiction.
Political role
According to the Canadian literary scholar Sacvan Bercovitch , in a typical American jeremiad, the biblical promise of a perfect society contradicts the actual mistakes of Americans. The Jeremiad thus has the function of a social corrective in that it links salvation to the righteous conduct of Americans. Bercovitch found this pattern in many political speeches, especially by conservative speakers (see Manifest Destiny ); his foreword to the 2012 new edition of his book also sees the Jeremiad as part of the discourse of the American left.
The role of America as a myth and concept of salvation is an important part of the political rhetoric of the United States and is described , among other things, in inauguration speeches. America is described as a world and salvation history experiment with a role model character, as a vision and also cited self-accusatory and apocalyptic tones. It corresponds to a civil religious tradition of rhetorical millennialism. The Yes we can of the 44th President of the USA, Barack Obama , is also placed in this context. The disputes over sectarian remarks by his former preacher Jeremiah Wright , which questioned Obama's success in the election campaign, were discussed as a double jeremiad , Obama's answer, "A More Perfect Union" is also in tradition and was the turning point of the campaign.
literature
- Sacvan Bercovitch: The American Jeremiad . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1978, ISBN 0-299-07350-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Reinartz, Gabriele. The American "Jeremiad" as a rhetorical strategy in public discourse: disillusionment in Eden. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1993.
- ↑ Sacvan Bercovitch The American Jeremiad Sacvan Bercovitch University of Wisconsin Press, April 19, 2012
- ↑ a b c America as myth and concept of salvation, The Art of the Jeremiad - on the rhetoric of the inaugural speech Götz-Dietrich Opitz, NZZ January 20, 2009
- ↑ Jeremiah's jeremiad , Rosa Brooks, writing off the Rev. Wright as twisted does nothing to promote reconciliation. May 1, 2008, Los Angeles Times