Ellen Spolsky Director, Lechter Institute of Literary Research Bar-Ilan University, Israel December 1997

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.