Crafting a Terministic Screen: The Rhetorical Influence of Increase Mather's Illustrious Providences

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar II

Abstract

This essay uses Kenneth Burke’s framework of Dramatism, and more specifically his notion of the terministic screen, to examine excerpts of Increase Mather’s 1684 Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences. Ultimately, I argue that an analysis of Mather's terministic screen provides a uniquely rhetorical understanding of the Salem Witch Trials.

Author

• Lauren A. Lemley, Texas A&M University