Synopses & Reviews
This is the first monograph-length study of the importance of Orpheus in Milton's conception of himself as an agonistic poet. It is one of the first monographs on Milton to make sustained use of Bakhtinian theory, specifically its concepts of author, hero and answerability. Without excluding a range of important classical sources, such as Statius's Birthday Ode to Lucan, this study argues-singularly in recent criticism-for the significant influence of Virgil. In Milton's writing (from prose to poetry), Orpheus functions as one of a number of heroes (masks, personae) by whom Milton creates an identity for himself as author. Orpheus in particular offers Milton a model (reflection) of the poet who fails, and yet turns that failure into a sign of his own identity as the faithful singer, the civilizer of men.
Synopsis
Orpheus is one of a number of mythical heroes against whose image Milton fashions a sense of himself as a heroic writer, publicly and personally engaged in the politics of Commonwealth and post-Commonwealth England. how do the various guises of Orpheus (the archetypal but failing poet, the passionate but guilty lover, the victim of mob violence, the civilizer of men) contribute to Milton's conception of heroism and heroic authorship? With the assistance of Mikhail Bakhtin's work on the conepts of 'author' and 'hero', as well as recent feminist interpretations of Milton, this study examines Milton's use of the Orpheus myth across the range of his writing, from the early poetry through the prose tracts, to Paradise Lost.