Cosmic Pandaemonium in Paradise Lost (ENGL40022)

This subject explores the great revolutions of the English seventeenth century through the prism of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost (1667, 1674). Weekly seminars will offer a close reading of each of the 12 books of the poem in the context of significant political, economic, theological and epistemological breaks exemplified by the English Revolution of 1642. These include the expansion and diversification of radical Protestant and Puritan religious sects; experiments with new forms of government such as the republic and constitutional monarchy; the origins of modern science and technology with Bacon, Galileo and Descartes; transformations in sexual and familial relationships; the development and regulation of new forms of print culture; and the founding of institutions like the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge (1662). Topics to be covered will include: genre, theology, sex, politics, militarism, education, science, censorship, architecture and aesthetics.