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2 - Structure and Genre of the Confessions

from Part I - Circumstances of Composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

By
Annemaré Kotzé
Edited by
Tarmo Toom
Tarmo Toom
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

This chapter highlights the challenges of understanding the generic make-up of the “Confessions” by looking at issues like “the unity” of the “Confessions” and various suggestions and difficulties involved in describing its structure and its genre. The section on structure focuses mostly on various ways of categorizing the units of content within the work, including a concise overview of a variety of proposals that have been made in this regard. The section on genre highlights the generic labels that are most frequently attached to the work (like autobiography, exegesis, protreptic, or apologetic), suggests some others, and also points toward the innovative fusion of antecedent generic conventions that constitutes the “Confessions.”

Keywords

genreunityautobiographymeditation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's 'Confessions' , pp. 28 - 45
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

BeDuhn, J. D. Augustine’s Manichaean Dilemma 2: Making a “Catholic” Self, 388–401 C.E, Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 (chapters 9 and 10, 314–402).Google Scholar
Brown, P. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000 (chapter 16, 151–177).Google Scholar
Kotzé, A. Augustine’s Confessions: Communicative Purpose and Audience. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 71. Leiden: Brill, 2004.Google Scholar
Lane Fox, R. Augustine: Conversions to Confessions. New York: Penguin, 2015.Google Scholar
McMahon, R. Understanding the Medieval Meditative Ascent: Augustine, Anselm, Boethius, and Dante. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006 (chapters 2 and 3, 64–158).Google Scholar
O’Donnell, J. J. Augustine: A New Biography. New York: Harper Collins, 2005 (chapter 2, 35–62).Google Scholar
O’Donnell, J. J. Augustine: Confessions: Commentary on Books 8–13, three vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992 (especially the introduction and the introductory sections to books and sections of books).Google Scholar
Stock, B. Augustine the Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge and the Ethics of Interpretation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996 (section 1, 21–122).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fleteren, F. “Confessiones.” In Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Fitzgerald, A. D.. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999, 227–232.Google Scholar
Vessey, M. (ed.). A Companion to Augustine. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. (section 2 on the “Confessions,” 55–110).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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