Synopses & Reviews
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. While "Paradise Regained" and "Samson Agonistes" 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.
Review
"All Miltonists in training need to read Peter C. Hermans Destabilizing Milton: Paradise Lost and the Poetics of Incertitude, which traces the shift in recent Milton scholarship away from a deeply entrenched, multi-guised critical orthodoxy which maintains that Milton is a poet of utter certainty and "Paradise Lost" a poem of perfect unity. (They should read the rest of the book too.) --Year's Work in English Studies "A welcome addition to Milton studies."--Notes and Queries "Destabilizing Milton is a brilliant study. Its title has an aptly dangling participle which both refers to the destabilizing elements the poet introduces in his epic and to Hermans attempt to destabilize the iconic Milton of a critical tradition that ignores the ambiguity and only emphasizes the poets certitude...Hermans book cannot fail to change the way we read "Paradise Lost" in future."--Heythrop Journal Reviews
Review
"A welcome addition to Milton studies." --Notes and Queries "Destabilizing Milton is a brilliant study. Its title has an aptly dangling participle which both refers to the destabilizing elements the poet introduces in his epic and to Hermans attempt to destabilize the iconic Milton of a critical tradition that ignores the ambiguity and only emphasizes the poets certitude...Hermans book cannot fail to change the way we read Paradise Lost in future."--Heythrop Journal Reviews
Synopsis
Destablizing Milton challenges the conventional notion of John Milton as a poet of absolute, unquestioned certainty, and proposes that in his late poetry, Milton puts into question his earlier positions on God, gender, and politics without providing certain answers.
Synopsis
Destablizing Milton challenges the conventional notion of John Milton as a poet of absolute, unquestioned certainty, and proposes that in his late poetry, Milton puts into question his earlier positions on God, gender, and politics without providing certain answers.
About the Author
Peter C. Herman is Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University.
Table of Contents
Introduction: "Normal" Interpretation and the Protocols of Milton Criticism: Or, How the Interpretation of Milton
Really Works * "Warring Chains of Signifiers": Metaphoric Ambivalence and the Politics of
Paradise Lost *
Paradise Lost, the Miltonic "Or," and the Poetics of Incertitude * "England a Free Nation": Milton's Prose and the Ancient Constitution * "New Laws, New Counsels": Satan, Charles I, and the Ancient Constitution * Incertitude, Authority, and Milton's God * God, Gender, the Fall, and the Problem of Responsibility * Postscript:
Samson Agonistes, Paradise Regained, and the Romance Conclusion of Milton's Career