Ellen Spolsky
Director, Lechter Institute of Literary Research
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
December 1997
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Modular Processing:
The Epistemological Crisis of Early Modern Iconoclasm

Ellen Spolsky argues that the mind’s distinct faculties for processing information is prone to epistemological gaps that the literary imagination can help bridge. Investigating the social effect of the removal of pictorial representations from sacred spaces in early modern England, she shows how this precipitated a crisis among the older population. Their dependency on visual input could only be compensated for by a new generation of preachers, such as the educated iconoclast Martin Bucer, who were extremely efficient in converting words into satisfying mental imagery.
 

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Ellen Spolsky is a Director of the Lechter Institute for Literary Research at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. See her home page.
 
 
 
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