Spring 2006 Courses

English 315: Milton (Krier)

T/Th 10:10-11:40 am, HUM 102

Poet Susan Mitchell speaks of Paradise Lost as one of the books that changed her life; she values it because, she says, “As a poet, I am not interested in copying the world. I am interested in making a language, and out of that language, a world that can exist only in language…a new language, a changed language can create new worlds,” and she praises Milton’s language which is “luxuriant, rough, magnificent.” Novelist Philip Pullman did create new worlds out of Milton’s poetry; he named his fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, using a phrase from Milton, and wrestling with Milton’s characters and ideals throughout. In this course we’ll read Milton’s Paradise Lost, His Dark Materials, and as much of Milton’s shorter poetry as time allows.

Milton was a political revolutionary: he was on the side of the rebels and liberty and against a tyrannical monarchy in England’s Civil War; he wrote public documents defending regicide; he went into hiding and feared execution when a new monarchy came into power. Milton was a religious revolutionary: saturated with the spiritual and narrative power of the Bible, he nonetheless wrestled with the biblical Father-God throughout Paradise Lost and developed other ideas of deity. He was a revolutionary in gender politics: he wrestled with his wives, with the story of Adam and Eve, with rigid ideas of marriage, and he created the terms that would make possible both an ideal of companionate marriage and divorce; he wrestled with pagan myth which he loved and rejected, over and over again.  These energies sustain the turbulent epic Paradise Lost. 

Paradise Lost makes a terrific portal to ancient Graeco-Roman myth, to biblical narrative and poetry, to epic and romance traditions from Homer onward, to love poetry. Reading this poem, you will learn how to read and talk about poetry, and how to enjoy poems that tell stories.  Two essays; study questions, especially at the start, to inform your reading and fuel discussion; a final exam.

Give yourself a treat: If you don’t know the books already, start reading His Dark Materials over late December and January. You won’t be able to put them down. (If you happen to buy the Pullman books on your own, make sure that volume 3, The Amber Spyglass, is in a version that has little poetic quotations at the start of each chapter.)

Spring 2006 Course Listings