SYLLABUS: ENGLISH 329 MILTON FALL

Lee A. Jacobus Arjona 410

Class meets Thursday 1 to 3:30 in Arjona 323 Office hours after class and appt.

My office number is 486-2570 (or 2141) and home/fax: 203-483-7751. Papers are to be 8-10 pages and read aloud in class. They will be critiqued in class, then you will be able to revise them and hand in a finished version in 2-3 weeks.

Texts: Oxford: Orgel & Goldberg, Complete Poems and Selected Prose. Patrides, Selected Prose. Some of the readings listed below will be changed or added to, and a number of texts will be on reserve.


August 28 We begin with a discussion of some of the minor poems: the Sonnets; "On the Death of a Fair Infant"; "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"

September 4 "L'Allegro"; "Il Penseroso"; in C. A. Patrides: Selected Prose: Areopagitica, 196-249; Read: J. B. Leishman, Milton's Minor Poems, passim. Stella Revard, The Making of Poems 1645, passim. David Loewenstein, "'The Wars of Truth': Areopagitica and the Dynamics of History" in Milton and the Drama of History.

September 11 Comus: A Maske at Ludlow; in Patrides, Of Education, pp. 181-196 Read: Milton Quarterly 21:4 (1987); Cedric Brown, John Milton's Aristocratic Entertainments (1985).

September 18 Lycidas; in Patrides: Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, pp. 112-181 Read: C. A. Patrides, Milton's 'Lycidas,' The Tradition and the Poem Scott Elledge, Milton's Lycidas

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September 28 Paradise Lost, I and II, debate in hell. Read: J. B. Broadbent, Some Graver Subject, passim--Intro & early chs. Read: C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost

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October 2 Paradise Lost, III and IV, heaven and earth; in Patrides, begin Christian Doctrine, pp. 359-399
Diane McColley, Milton's Eve: 'Rational Delight: The Marriage of Adam and Eve," 22-62

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October 9 Paradise Lost, V and VI, Raphael: the War in Heaven; Revard, The War in Heaven, "Satan as Epic Hero," 198-234; "The Son of God and the Strife of Glory," 235-263. James Freeman, Milton and the Martiall Muse passim.

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October 16 Paradise Lost, VII and VIII

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October 23 Paradise Lost, IX, the fall; Read: Stanley Fish, Surprised by Sin, "What Cause?: Faith and Reason," 241-285; Lewalski, PL and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms, Ch 9, "The Fall and Tragic Genres," 220-253; Jacobus, Sudden Apprehension, "Logic in the Garden", 119-166

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October 30 Paradise Lost, X; Read: Fish, "Man's Polluting Sin," 92-157

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November 6 Paradise Lost, XI and XII, futurities. Read: Fish, "So God With Man Unites," 286-331; Jacobus, Sudden Apprehension, "The Doctrines of Christian Assurance," 107-118

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November 13 Samson Agonistes Read: Mary Ann Radzinowicz, Towards Samson Agonistes David Loewenstein, "Samson Agonistes and the Drama of History" in Milton and the Drama of History.

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November 20 Paradise Regained I and II Read: Christopher Hill, "Paradise Regained," 413-427

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December 4 Paradise Regained, III and IV Read: John Shawcross,Paradise Regained: Worthy t'have not remained so long unsung

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FINAL EXAMINATION: DEC _____



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