William L Davis
• Ph.D. Theater and Performance Studies, UCLA.
• Visiting Scholar, Department of Performance Studies, New York University (sponsor: Richard Schechner).
• M.S. Digital Filmmaking and Design, New York University.
• M.F.A. Classical Acting, the Shakespeare Theatre/George Washington University.
• M.F.A. Program, the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), San Francisco (one year).
• B.A. Film Studies, the University of Utah.
My research focuses on the performance culture of colonial North America through antebellum America. I examine an intersection of cultural practices that includes theater, entertainment (storytelling culture, curiosity cabinets, museums, touring shows, etc.), religious performance (with a focus on semi-extemporaneous sermons and exhortations), folk magic and Christian occultism, and rhetoric / rhetorical training in schools. I examine the relationship between texts and performance, with a strong emphasis on historical criticism. My research and methodologies are highly interdisciplinary.
I also focus on Shakespeare, with an emphasis on rhetoric and complex chiasmus. I'm particularly interested in theories of memorial reconstruction and revisions bridging variant texts. I'm also interested in merging classical acting techniques with scholarship on Shakespeare's plays.
Supervisors: Theater: Michael Hackett and American Literature: Michael Colacurcio
• Visiting Scholar, Department of Performance Studies, New York University (sponsor: Richard Schechner).
• M.S. Digital Filmmaking and Design, New York University.
• M.F.A. Classical Acting, the Shakespeare Theatre/George Washington University.
• M.F.A. Program, the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), San Francisco (one year).
• B.A. Film Studies, the University of Utah.
My research focuses on the performance culture of colonial North America through antebellum America. I examine an intersection of cultural practices that includes theater, entertainment (storytelling culture, curiosity cabinets, museums, touring shows, etc.), religious performance (with a focus on semi-extemporaneous sermons and exhortations), folk magic and Christian occultism, and rhetoric / rhetorical training in schools. I examine the relationship between texts and performance, with a strong emphasis on historical criticism. My research and methodologies are highly interdisciplinary.
I also focus on Shakespeare, with an emphasis on rhetoric and complex chiasmus. I'm particularly interested in theories of memorial reconstruction and revisions bridging variant texts. I'm also interested in merging classical acting techniques with scholarship on Shakespeare's plays.
Supervisors: Theater: Michael Hackett and American Literature: Michael Colacurcio
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Book: VISIONS IN A SEER STONE and Related Info by William L Davis
Finalist for Best Book in "Excellence in the Study of Religion, Textual Studies" by the American Academy of Religion.
Finalist for Best Book in Religious Non-Fiction, the Association for Mormon Letters.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-46965-566-6
Publishers Weekly, Top Ten Pick for the Week of May 25, 2020: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/83347-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-may-25-2020.html
Roundtable Reviews by Dr. Elizabeth Fenton, Dr. Brian Hauglid, and Dr. Michael Austin, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/05/dialogue-roundtable-william-l-davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon/
The Association for Mormon Letters, review by Andrew Hamilton: http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/current-reviews/davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon-reviewed-by-andrew-hamilton/
The University of North Carolina Press (2020).
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469655666/visions-in-a-seer-stone/
In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America.
Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith’s process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.
Peer Reviewed Articles by William L Davis
[Note: the original published version cut off the citation for Figure 2 (on page 99), but the citation is now restored.]
This essay compares Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon with Andrew Jackson Davis' production of The Principles of Nature. The paper also explores the problematic efforts of trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is divine by using selective, idiosyncratic criteria in an effort to isolate a predetermined outcome.
This copy posted on Academia is not the final printed version, but an uncorrected proof.
Dissertation (Abstract and Full Text) by William L Davis
Smith’s purported translation of this sacred history, however, did not occur by traditional means. Rather than directly consulting the record and providing an English rendition, Smith employed a method of divination by placing a “seer stone” into the bottom of his hat, holding the hat to his face to shut out all light, and then he proceeded to dictate the entire text of The Book of Mormon in an extended oral performance, without the aid of notes or manuscripts. By his side, Smith’s scribes wrote down the entire text verbatim in the moment Smith uttered them. As a result, at over 500 printed pages, The Book of Mormon stands as one of the longest recorded oral performances in the history of the United States.
This dissertation aims to uncover some of the primary techniques of oral performance that Smith used in the construction of his work. Oratorical skill constituted a critical mode of public and private discourse in the culture of the early American nation; and, as I will argue, the text of The Book of Mormon reveals key characteristics of Smith’s techniques in oral performance that, in turn, reflect the oratorical training of the age. Drawing on Smith’s exposure to a kaleidoscope of cultural institutions that inculcated oratorical skills—focusing specifically on formal and informal education, Sunday school training and revivalism, folk magic practices, semi-extemporaneous Methodist preaching and exhorting, and the fireside storytelling culture of early America—this dissertation will demonstrate how these related cultural streams of oral performance converged in Smith’s production of The Book of Mormon, providing him with the necessary skills and techniques to produce and recite his massive Christian epic through the medium of the spoken word.
Book Reviews by William L Davis
Published Essays by William L Davis
Interviews, Podcasts, Presentations, and Responses by William L Davis
We cover a range of topics, from the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon to my book, Visions in a Seer Stone, and many other related issues.
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/05/dialogue-roundtable-william-l-davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon/
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/06/author-response-to-dialogue-book-review-roundtable-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon-by-william-davis/
Finalist for Best Book in "Excellence in the Study of Religion, Textual Studies" by the American Academy of Religion.
Finalist for Best Book in Religious Non-Fiction, the Association for Mormon Letters.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-46965-566-6
Publishers Weekly, Top Ten Pick for the Week of May 25, 2020: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/83347-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-may-25-2020.html
Roundtable Reviews by Dr. Elizabeth Fenton, Dr. Brian Hauglid, and Dr. Michael Austin, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/05/dialogue-roundtable-william-l-davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon/
The Association for Mormon Letters, review by Andrew Hamilton: http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/current-reviews/davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon-reviewed-by-andrew-hamilton/
The University of North Carolina Press (2020).
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469655666/visions-in-a-seer-stone/
In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America.
Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith’s process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.
[Note: the original published version cut off the citation for Figure 2 (on page 99), but the citation is now restored.]
This essay compares Joseph Smith's production of the Book of Mormon with Andrew Jackson Davis' production of The Principles of Nature. The paper also explores the problematic efforts of trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is divine by using selective, idiosyncratic criteria in an effort to isolate a predetermined outcome.
This copy posted on Academia is not the final printed version, but an uncorrected proof.
Smith’s purported translation of this sacred history, however, did not occur by traditional means. Rather than directly consulting the record and providing an English rendition, Smith employed a method of divination by placing a “seer stone” into the bottom of his hat, holding the hat to his face to shut out all light, and then he proceeded to dictate the entire text of The Book of Mormon in an extended oral performance, without the aid of notes or manuscripts. By his side, Smith’s scribes wrote down the entire text verbatim in the moment Smith uttered them. As a result, at over 500 printed pages, The Book of Mormon stands as one of the longest recorded oral performances in the history of the United States.
This dissertation aims to uncover some of the primary techniques of oral performance that Smith used in the construction of his work. Oratorical skill constituted a critical mode of public and private discourse in the culture of the early American nation; and, as I will argue, the text of The Book of Mormon reveals key characteristics of Smith’s techniques in oral performance that, in turn, reflect the oratorical training of the age. Drawing on Smith’s exposure to a kaleidoscope of cultural institutions that inculcated oratorical skills—focusing specifically on formal and informal education, Sunday school training and revivalism, folk magic practices, semi-extemporaneous Methodist preaching and exhorting, and the fireside storytelling culture of early America—this dissertation will demonstrate how these related cultural streams of oral performance converged in Smith’s production of The Book of Mormon, providing him with the necessary skills and techniques to produce and recite his massive Christian epic through the medium of the spoken word.
We cover a range of topics, from the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon to my book, Visions in a Seer Stone, and many other related issues.
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/05/dialogue-roundtable-william-l-davis-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon/
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2020/06/author-response-to-dialogue-book-review-roundtable-visions-in-a-seer-stone-joseph-smith-and-the-making-of-the-book-of-mormon-by-william-davis/