ACACIA is a gothic-inflected surrealist captivity narrative modeled after storied historical accounts such as Mary Rowlandson's Sovereignty and the Goodness of God, Charles I’s Eikon Basilike, and the prison narratives of the French Quietist mystic, Jeanne Guyon. Told by Fontaine Caldwell, the matriarchal prophetess of an East Texas isolationist cult, ACACIA draws on Rudolf Otto's theological concept of “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”—the presence of dread tempered with Heavenly allure when confronted with numinous spiritual events—to populate the spiritual wonders of Fontaine’s diaries—her “little books.” As a captivity account, ACACIA calls on rhetorical dynamics essential to that genre to pose questions about divine goodness, the veracity of the teller, and the psychology undergirding adherence to power, religious or otherwise.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>ACACIA</em> is a gothic-inflected surrealist captivity narrative modeled after storied historical accounts such as Mary Rowlandson's <em>Sovereignty and the Goodness of God</em>, Charles I’s<em> Eikon Basilike</em>, and the prison narratives of the French Quietist mystic, Jeanne Guyon. Told by Fontaine Caldwell, the matriarchal prophetess of an East Texas isolationist cult, <em>ACACIA</em> draws on Rudolf Otto's theological concept of “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”—the presence of dread tempered with Heavenly allure when confronted with numinous spiritual events—to populate the spiritual wonders of Fontaine’s diaries—her “little books.” As a captivity account, <em>ACACIA</em> calls on rhetorical dynamics essential to that genre to pose questions about divine goodness, the veracity of the teller, and the psychology undergirding adherence to power, religious or otherwise.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["James, Vincent"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Selah Saterstrom","Joanna Howard","Clark Davis","Frederique Chevillot"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:45Z","subjects":["Creative writing","Screenwriting","Arts and Humanities","Film and Media Studies"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.
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"],"dc:subject":["Creative writing","Screenwriting","Arts and Humanities","Film and Media Studies"],"dc:title":["ACACIA, a Book of Wonders, or the Meditations of Fontaine Caldwell, Containing the True Account of Her Captivity as Written in Her Little Books"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:45Z"}