Come fare le cose con i testi: A Modell of Christian Charity di John Winthrop

Abstract

In the various analyses and debates that have seen involved Winthrop’s 1630 sermon, A Modell of Christian Charity, a lot of attention has been given to its historical and cultural context, i.e. to the determinants of the discourse. The analysis proposed in this paper focuses on the Modell as a text, taking as a starting point the consideration that the text identity – what it is – can be understood in terms of what it does. The approach used is pragmatic in nature, and, more precisely, speech-act theory based. It takes into account the context – both in its objective and cognitive dimension –, and explores how exactly the Modell functions in a specific discourse world. Such an investigation is carried out taking into account three illocutionary levels: speech acts, how speech acts combine into specific text functions, and how these text functions result in a specific functional profile that acts in a specific discourse domain, at a particular period in time. Special attention is given to the middle level analysis of text functions, because it is this level that opens
up the outline of how things are done in texts. The analysis is aimed at showing how Winthrop creates a coherent rationale for a collective action through the skillful use of the sermon typical functional profile combined with the use of lexical polysemy, all wrought together in a text in which tout se tient, unanimously considered the Ur-text of American literature and culture.