Milton and the Drama of History: Historical Vision, Iconoclasm, and the Literary Imagination

by David Loewenstein

Overview

This first book-length study explores the relationship between Milton's vision of history and his literary imagination in the revolutionary prose and great poems. It focuses on Milton as a controversial writer actively engaged in shaping, representing, and participating in the drama of history of his age. Highlighting the apocalyptic and iconoclastic components of Milton's historical vision, the book examines the more turbulent dimensions of his polemic and poetic works. Loewenstein stresses the importance of Milton's less canonical texts (such as Eikonoklastes and the History of Britain) and shows how they illuminate the sense of history dramatized in Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes. Analyzing the literary expressions of Milton's radicalism, this study reveals a complex interaction among historical consciousness and figurative expression, political vision and textual effects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521372534
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/27/1990
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; A note on texts; Introduction; 1. The drama of history in the early revolutionary prose; 2. 'The wars of truth': Areopagitica and the dynamics of history; 3. 'Casting down imaginations': iconoclasm as history; 4. 'Great acts and great eloquence': the historical imagination in the later revolutionary prose; 5. Paradise Lost and the configurations of history; 6. Spectacle of power: Samson Agonistes and the drama of history; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a provocative vision of how Milton's conception of history and sense of the literary text interrelate and correlate." Eglish Language Notes

"...a refreshing book." Albion

From the Publisher