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The main focus of this seminar will be on Milton’s Paradise Lost. To read this text is to embark on an extraordinary adventure. You will meet a truly wonderful cast of characters including Adam, Eve, God, Satan (who might perhaps even be the true hero of this text), a whole crowd of bizarre devils, Death, Sin and large numbers of well-meaning but sometimes not terribly intelligent angels. Be prepared to think about a wide range of issues: How can a successful and popular angel end up with a new career as a senior devil? Are angels vegetarians? What are this text’s implications in terms of politics and gender roles? Is our planet the centre of the universe, and does it matter? Why does Milton’s poem still fascinate readers, why can it be enjoyed by both deeply religious people of all persuasions and by sceptics and atheists? How and why did evil come into the world? How can devils stand hell’s hellish heat? What are the typical conventions of epic poetry, and how does Milton play with them? Is there sex in heaven?
Although this is the second part of a seminar on Milton, having done part I in the summer semester is not a requirement. Both participants of part I and newcomers to this seminar (and to Milton) are welcome. We shall briefly discuss books I-III and then continue our close reading of the text beginning with book IV.
Please buy one the following editions (and none other) now: John Milton (ed. Alastair Fowler), Paradise Lost. Longman Annotated English Poets (recommended!) or John Milton (ed. Gordon Teskey), Paradise Lost. Norton Critical Editions. If you want to do this seminar, you should have bought the text and prepared at least book IV of Paradise Lost before the first week of the new semester – so think, annotate, look things up if necessary and, above all, enjoy! Newcomers will find the short prose summaries (“arguments”) of books I-III helpful.
Formal requirements: regular attendance, reading and preparing the assigned texts, active participation, Hausarbeit. |
