Is the
New
Puritan literary movement the literary equivalent of DOGMA 95, or just a
publicity stunt?
According to the manifesto's 10 rules, New Puritans "shun poetry," "avoid
all devices of voice," including "rhetoric" and "authorial asides," "eschew
flashbacks, dual temporal narratives and foreshadowing," and "avoid any
elaborate punctuation" (?!) and "all improbable or unknowable speculation
about the past or the future." ... All New Puritan works are set in the
present day because they're "fragments of our time," and they feature only
"real" products, places and objects -- nothing made up.
They're just in it for a lark. Blincoe and Thorne themselves describe the
manifesto as "partly playful." Most of the contributors didn't even actually
sign the thing, and have no intention of abiding by its rules after the
party's over.