ENGL 345 - Milton

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

One of the most iconic—and divisive—figures in world as much as English literature, John Milton (1608–1674) navigated daunting contingency in almost every aspect of his life. As an author, he wrote the greatest long poem in the English language; as a blind and mobility-impaired person, he rebuffed the ableist attacks of his opponents by reclaiming vulnerability and anticipating the disability theory of today; and as a political operative, he shocked readers by defending the killing of a king, the right to get divorced, the importance of a free press, and the separation of church and state. This class brings all three aspects of Milton’s life and career into conversation. The first part focuses on Milton’s early poetry and prose, his style and ideological convictions. The second part turns to Paradise Lost, not only as an iconoclastic apex of early modern religious thought—and the Greco-Roman epic tradition—but as a literary pivot point, from the Renaissance to Romanticism and the novel. The final part then considers the poem’s afterlives, both in Milton’s later work and, as a case study of his reception, in the ways Black writers have consistently engaged with him, from Phillis Wheatley to Malcolm X. This points to an aspect of the entire seminar, that embodiment in all forms—racialized, gendered, sexualized, and disabled—offers a crucial lens through which to reevaluate Milton’s corpus, alongside the interests that all of us bring to our collaborative discussion. Pasquale Toscano.

This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS