Mormon Literature Database

Notice: The Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database has moved to mormonarts.lib.byu.edu.

Speech \| View all Works in this Category	1754 total items.
Description Latter-day Saints are a speaking people, and since the beginning of Mormonism speeches and sermons, transcribed and written, have been printed and circulated, often within official periodicals or in compilations created by Mormon publishers. As such, speeches form a longstanding and vital part of Mormon literary tradition. Of course Mormon talks, addresses, sermons, and speeches have circulated principally due to their religious content, and studies of Mormon speaking or speakers have largely been ancillary to historical and biographical studies. However, Mormon oratory is now becoming a field of inquiry for rhetorical and linguistic studies, and Mormon sermons and speeches constitute an important body of primary materials for Mormon sociological, folkloric, ethnic, and anthropological studies. In addition, Mormon speaking has gone well beyond the subject matter and occasions for religious speaking to include speeches by Mormons of a political, civic, or academic nature in a wide variety of contexts and to many audiences within and outside Mormon culture. While the Mormon Literature Database may at some point attempt to be a comprehensive bibliography of Mormon speaking, at present it focuses upon important collections of speeches, and includes records of major speakers and speeches, particularly where such speaking or speakers have been studied for their rhetorical, linguistic, and literary qualities.
Associated Genres Devotional Address, EFY Talk, Forum Address, General Conference Address,
Genre History The history of Mormon speaking can perhaps best be understood in terms of the venues and occasions where Mormon speeches have occurred, and to the principal means for publishing and circulating Mormon speeches. Religious meetings within Mormon congregations and within Mormon proselyting efforts have included hundreds of thousands of unrecorded sermons, but the formal sermons offered at the semi-annual General Conferences of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints have been carefully preserved. Addresses presented to students within the Church Educational System, especially as part of the Forums and Devotionals that are a weekly part of student life at the Church's main centers of learning, have also been collected and edited.
Web Site Speeches website at Brigham Young University A resource for viewing, downloading, and purchasing copies (in various forms) of speeches given at various occasions in the history of BYU. http://speeches.byu.edu