Abstract: The British social transformation in the seventeenth century exerted profound influence on the writing paradigm of hagiography. Despite the reform to the existing conventionality, the didactic function was still key to the genre. From the perspective of the textual communication, it is apparent that hagiographers focused on the manipulation of the biographical narrative, thus suspending the reader’s doubt and ensuring the successful exercise of the performative force.

Keywords: social transformation; hagiography; sanctity; performative force; biographical pact

Li Kaiping, Ph. D is  Adjunct Associate Research Professor at the Center for Life Writing,ShanghaiJiaoTongUniversity. His major publications include “Surmounting and Innovating: John Aubrey’s Contribution to Short Biography,” (2012), “A Dialogue Between His Two Selves: Reading Samuel Pepys’s Diary,” (2012) and book chapters on British biography in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in The Development of British Biography by Tang Xiumin et al (2012).