Module description
This module offers students a unique opportunity to spend a whole semester reading one single poem, albeit a very large one: John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1674). One of the greatest works of English literature, this epic consists of twelve books, most of which we will devote a whole week to reading and talking about. Taking in a range of issues including love, marriage, religion, politics, education, freedom of speech, and the rights of rulers and citizens within a free commonwealth, we will see why Milton still has so much to say to us. Where other modules have introduced students to single books of the poem, we will ask what the experience of immersing ourselves in the whole can teach us as readers. What does it mean to read a whole work in such detail? And how does attending to Milton in this way affect our sense of his place in the literary canon? As one critic recently asked, ‘Is Milton better than Shakespeare?’ These are all questions we will debate in two-hour weekly seminars.
We will draw upon a range of criticism of the poem, considering the changing ways in which Milton has been read over time. As such, the course will provide an overview of literary criticism itself, through the lens of this single poem. Seeing how critics have treated Paradise Lost from the time of its composition to our own historical moment will allow us to gain new understanding of the poem and of our role as readers. Because reading and writing are considered inextricable from one another in the Early Modern period, we will use exercises in literary imitation in order to read Milton more closely by trying to write like him. These short tasks, which will be assigned on a weekly basis, are designed as a way of making Milton more approachable, and will be designed to be as simple as possible. By the end of the course you will know Paradise Lost from the inside out.
Assessment details
Open book exam (85%); short tasks (15%)
Educational aims & objectives
- To have a historically nuanced understanding of the late nineteenth and early twentieth - century short story.
- To have sustained and rigorous engagement with selected literary texts in the seminars: students will be actively encouraged to bring to the discussions their skills of close investigative reading and knowledge of the period and connect historical cultural issues with questions of literary technique.
- To examine critically the term 'modernist', and explore some of its historical contexts and formal complexities in relation to a particular genre.
- To sharpen theoretical awareness of issues such as colonialism, race, gender, sexuality and the body, and to employ these concepts in literary analysis.
Teaching pattern
1x2 hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
Core reading:
We will be using Alastair Fowler’s edition of Paradise Lost for the Longman Annotated Poets series. This is the only book you will require for this course.