English 4190, Milton, Fall 2014 MWF 10:00-10:50 pm, CL 121

Dr. Eric W. Nye (nye@uwyo.edu), Office Hours: MWF 11-12 pm, Hoyt Hall 308, 766-3244

 

 

Option 1:

Freedom and Happiness

 

Which is worth more, freedom or happiness?  Discuss Milton�s view in Paradise Lost and other sources (Areopagitica, Samson Agonistes, the Divorce Tracts, etc.).  What defines freedom?  What brings happiness?  Can we be free and obedient?  Can we be free and disobedient?  Can we be happy and obedient?  Can we be happy and disobedient?  Finally, can we be free and happy?  What does Milton think is the key to this?

 

Consider evidence in the readings for Milton�s position and try to articulate it as clearly as possible.  What problems do we have accepting it?

 

Option 2:

�In darkness, and with dangers compast round�

 

Paradise Lost is notoriously easy to misread.  We�re always assuming the way it�s supposed to be.  Yet Milton is usually trickier than we expect, and when we�re on the way to what we think is a clever reading, he meets us coming back. 

 

Write a short paper in which you correct what you think could be a common misconception about Milton, especially in Paradise Lost.  For example, consider the gender views that Milton expects women to be silent and submissive, or that the fall is principally the fault of Eve.  Or consider the political views that Milton radically opposes the concept of kingship and advocates egalitarian democracy.  Or consider the view that Milton as a Puritan believes in asceticism.  The list is endless.  Whatever common misconceptions there are about Milton, whatever dark or degrading interpretations, you need to set yourself up against them.

 

Eschewing deconstruction, this represents reconstruction as an alternative mode of criticism.  The misreading you choose to attack may thus be complex and the result of sophisticated theorizing.  But your reconstruction should focus on the texts of Milton themselves.  Show the narrowness of the misreading, the complex irony in Milton�s views.  But beware of making your misreader into a straw man.  It�s no fair having a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

 

If it helps, select a misguided article on Milton that you want to use as your focus.  Discuss the critic�s approach, its adequacies and inadequacies.  What critical assumptions are made?  What are the most significant weaknesses in the approach, issues you see that are most important but that receive neglect or distortion in the critic�s treatment?.  What would you advise the critic to do to correct these deficiencies?  Avoid a straw man argument.  Try sincerely to come to grips with the critic�s valuation.  But then transcend that valuation and supply a coherent approach of your own that builds on or overturns the critic�s.  You may use web-based or library bibliographies to locate the deficient criticism, but the criticism itself must be cited from a print copy (not web).  Try to engage the critic in a civil way.  It may take several attempts to find a critic who is sufficiently misguided to fit your purposes

 

Five pages, typed, double-spaced.  Due in class on Wednesday, December 10th.