Milton

John Milton's writings reflect a lifelong effort to unite the aims of political, intellectual and literary experimentation. This class explores Milton's major works, especially Paradise Lost. We'll consider Milton's highly original characters, especially Satan, with whom we are invited to sympathize, but also Adam, Eve and Samson. We'll encounter Milton's startling poetic innovations, his controversial ideas about sovereignty, marriage and God, and we will consider Milton's writings in relation to other genres, from late antique theology and medicine to much more recent sci-fi and crime fiction.