Benjamin Kaplan's "Fictions of Privacy"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that historian Benjamin Kaplan in his article "Fictions of Privacy" explores the Early Modern Period in Europe and details the negotiation between the private and the public as it related to religious practice. The author points out that the article reveals the incongruous setting for religious observance in many Early Modern European homes. The paper concludes that the creation of the private/public demarcation was vital to preventing violence and bloodshed.

From the Paper:

"Benjamin Kaplan's "Fictions of Privacy: House Chapels and the Spatial accommodation of Religious Dissent in Early Modern Europe", is a very intriguing and worthwhile article. The introduction to the article is excellent, inasmuch as it vividly - and unexpectedly - reveals the incongruous setting for religious observance in many Early Modern European homes - the house attic (2002, 1031). The article then proceeds to launch into a very detailed description of the `attic chapel' (1031-1033); this description is accompanied on page 1033 with a photo. What is significant about the article's introduction is that, in surprising the reader by first portraying the former residence of the long-departed Jan Hartmann as simply a well-preserved dwelling from the past, the surreptitious nature of the house chapel is under-scored."

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