L470 25331 SEMINAR: LITERATURE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Linda Charnes

1:00p-2:15p TR (25 students) 3 cr.

TOPIC: “Milton, Politics and the Law”

This seminar will be organized around intensive readings of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, as well as selected earlier writings, including his treatise against print censorship, Areopagita. Questions we will pursue include the following: how do Milton’s politics change over the course of his writing career (or do they change)? How does a former “regicide” come to write an epic in which God is the monarch par excellence? What are the different kinds of political psychology that circulate throughout Milton’s works? What kinds of debates are staged in Paradise Lost and how do such debates, on free will, erotic desire, sex, human and divine love, war, tyranny and insurrection continue to play out in the present day? Are these debates gendered, and if so, are there “separate but equal” political psychologies in Milton? Most importantly, is Milton our contemporary?

In addition to Milton’s texts, we will read selections from political theorists such as Jon Elster and Slavoj Zizek, as well as some of the best, and most controversial Milton criticism by scholars such as Victoria Kahn, Gordon Teskey, and Stanley Fish. Students will write informal weekly response notes, and two 8-10pp. essays.