ENGL 335-01, Milton, fall 2008

Abstract

A study of the major poetry and selections of prose of the 17th century writer John Milton, whose 400th anniversary of his birth we will be celebrating (1608-1674). Milton's a fascinating figure who composed in an extraordinary range of genres, including an epitaph on Shakespeare; sonnets on historical events as well as on his own life; poems about Christ, including a dialogue with Satan; a play about shepherds; prose treatises on divorce and governance; an influential elegy on the death of a companion; a 'closet' drama about the biblical Samson. While we will be surveying the full range of these genres across his learned career, we will be devoting much of our attention to Paradise Lost, the major epic of the English language, based on the story of Genesis yet encompassing profound and still relevant reflections on liberty, rebellion, history, providence, social hierarchies, and domestic relations in magnificent verse. As a contemporary writer praised this undertaking: “You who read Paradise Lost, the sublime poem of the great Milton, what do you read but the story of all things?” As an advanced seminar in the English department, students will be expected to evaluate scholarly resources a weekly basis; write brief but regular critical reflections on primary and secondary reading; and complete a substantial final research project that argues for their own interpretation in dialogue with the critical tradition within this field.