Milton and Modernity: Politics, Masculinity and Paradise Lost

by M. Jordan

Overview

This book presents a theoretical and historicized reading of the production of the 'autonomous' subject in Milton's prose and in Paradise Lost. It rejects the current orthodoxy that liberal humanism is just a form of domination, and reads Milton's texts as revolutionary. Although Milton participates in the formation of discourses of sexuality, labour and the nature of reason which come to be normative, neither Milton's texts nor modernity more generally can be understood without also accepting the dynamism inherent in the belief in individual freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349410910
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2001
Series:	Politics, Masculinity and Paradise Lost
Edition description:	1st ed. 2001
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x (d)

About the Author

MATTHEW JORDAN is Lecturer in Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Milton and Modernity Born to Command and Not to Obey: Milton and the Political Force of Liberal Humanism No Respecter of Persons: Individual Merit in Milton's Heaven Stronger than Death: Masculinity and Marriage in Paradise Lost Labour and Love: The Individual and the Natural World in Paradise Lost Conclusion: On Even Ground: Adam as Every Man Select Bibliography Index