Augustine's Confessions : communicative purpose and audience / / by Annemaré Kotzé.

• Superior document: Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, v. 71
• Author: Kotzé, Annemaré.
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae ; v. 71.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (295 p.)
• Notes: Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral).

This book is about the communicative purpose and the audience of the Confessions . It illuminates the degree to which the communicative purpose of the work is to convert its readers, id est a protreptic purpose, and the degree to which the target audience may be identified as Augustine's potential Manichaean readers. A brief survey of possible literary antecedents points to the existence of other works that consist of the same combination of an autobiographical section (a conversion story) with a polemical and exegetical section (an argument that aims to convince the reader of the merits of a specific point of view) that characterizes the Confessions . The book provides a new perspective on the meaning and structure of Augustine's often misunderstood masterpiece.

Table of Contents

Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- THE CONFESSIONS AND ITS ACADEMIC READERS: A SURVEY OF SECONDARY LITERATURE -- THE CONFESSIONS AND ITS FIRST READERS: GENRE AND AUDIENCE -- COMMUNICATIVE PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE IN THE MEDITATION ON PSALM 4 -- PROTREPTIC PURPOSE -- AUDIENCE -- CONCLUSION -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS -- INDEX OF SUBJECTS -- INDEX LOCORUM -- SUPPLEMENTS TO VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE.