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Destabilizing Milton

"Paradise Lost" and the Poetics of Incertitude

  • Book
  • © 2005

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Authors:
  1. Peter C. Herman

    1. San Diego State University, USA

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 1-24

  3. “Warring Chains of Signifiers”: Metaphoric Ambivalence and the Politics of Paradise Lost

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 25-42

  4. Paradise Lost, the Miltonic “Or,” and the Poetics of Incertitude

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 43-59

  5. “England a Free Nation”: Milton’s Prose and the Ancient Constitution

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 61-81

  6. “New Laws, New Counsels”: The Problem of Politics in Paradise Lost

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 83-105

  7. Incertitude, Authority, and Milton’s God

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 107-125

  8. “The More to Draw His Love”: Paradise Lost and the Critique of Misogyny

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 127-154

  9. Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and the Conclusion of Milton’s Career

    • Peter C. Herman
    Pages 155-176

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 177-230
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Keywords

About this book

Destabilizing Milton challenges the widely accepted view of Milton as a poet of absolute, unquestioning certainty. In Paradise Lost , Milton confronts the failure of the Revolution by creating a poem that refuses to grant the reader any interpretive stability or certainty. Doubts can no longer be contained and concepts once marked by a 'fundamental immobility' now seem unstable at best. Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes equally reflect Milton's deep ambivalences after the collapse of the Republic. Far from confirming his earlier ideals, in his later poetry, Milton subjects his culture's most cherished beliefs, such as the goodness of God, to withering scrutiny, while refusing the comfort of orthodox answers.

Reviews

'Destabilizing Milton is a brilliant study...His discourse is fluent and convincing, and all his points are painstakingly researched against the religious and political situation of the period.' - Jan Marten Ivo Klaver, The Heythrop Journal

Authors and Affiliations

  • San Diego State University, USA

    Peter C. Herman

About the author

PETER HERMAN is Professor of English at San Diego State University, USA. He is the author of Squitter-wits and Muse-haters: Sidney, Spenser, Milton and Renaissance Antipoetic Sentiment as well as the editor of Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts; Reading Monarchs Writing: The Poetry of Henry VIII, Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, and James VII; Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy; and Historicizing Theory. In addition, he has published essays in such journals as Renaissance Quarterly, Studies in English Literature, Exemplaria, Criticism, and the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

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