Destabilizing Milton Paradise Lost and the Poetics of Incertitude [Paperback]

Destabilizing Milton challenges the widely accepted view of Milton as a poet of absolute, unquestioning certainty. In Paradise Lost , Milton confronts the failure of the Revolution by creating a poem that refuses to grant the reader any interpretive stability or certainty. Doubts can no longer be contained and concepts once marked by a 'fundamental immobility' now seem unstable at best. Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes equally reflect Milton's deep ambivalences after the collapse of the Republic. Far from confirming his earlier ideals, in his later poetry, Milton subjects his culture's most cherished beliefs, such as the goodness of God, to withering scrutiny, while refusing the comfort of orthodox answers.Introduction: 'Normal' Interpretation and the Protocols of Milton Criticism 'Warring Chains of Signifiers': Metaphoric Ambivalence and the Politics of Paradise Lost Paradise Lost, the Miltonic 'Or', and the Poetics of Incertitude 'England a Free Nation': Milton's Prose and the Ancient Constitution 'New Laws, New Counsels': Satan, Charles I, and the Ancient Constitution Incertitude, Authority, and Milton's God God, Gender, the Fall, and the Problem of Responsibility Postscript: Samson Agonistes, Paradise Regained and the Romance Conclusion of Milton's Career

'Destabilizing Milton is a brilliant study...His discourse is fluent and convincing, and all his points are painstakingly researched against the religious and political situation of the period.' - Jan Marten Ivo Klaver, The Heythrop Journal

PETER HERMAN is Professor of English at San Diego State University, USA. He is the author of Squitter-wits and Muse-haters: Sidney, Spenser, Milton and Renaissance Antipoetic Sentiment as well as the editor of Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts; Reading Monarchs Writing: The Poetry of Henry VIII, Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, and James VII