Christopher Hodgkins
Fall 2004
Th 6:30-9:20
McIver 135
Office: McIver 116
Office Hours: Th 6-6:30; TTh 1:45-2:30, and by appointment
Office Phone: x4691
Home Phone: 316-0463
e-mail: cthodgki@uncg.edu

Required Texts: Merritt Y. Hughes, ed., John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th or 6th edn.)

Course Schedule

Week 1 (8/19) Introductions; Song: On May Morning; On the Morning of Christ's Nativity; On Shakespeare
Week 2 (8/26) Sonnet IV; L'Allegro; Il Penseroso; Sonnet VII; On Time; At a Solemn Music; Ad Patrem
Week 3 (9/2) A Mask (Comus)

Week 4 (9/9) Lycidas; Epitaphium Damonis; Of Education

Week 5 (9/16) The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty; An Apology for Smectymnuus
Week 6 (9/23) The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce; Areopagitica; Sonnets XI-XIII; On the
New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament
Week 7 (10/3) The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth; Sonnets XV-XIX, XXII-XXIII
Week 8 (10/7) The Christian Doctrine (excerpts); Paradise Lost, Book 1

Week 9 (10/14) Paradise Lost, Books 2-3

Week 10 (10/21) Paradise Lost, Books 4-6

Week 11 (10/28) Paradise Lost, Books 7-9

Week 12 (11/4) Paradise Lost, Books 10-12

Week 13 (11/11) Samson Agonistes

Week 14 (11/18) Paradise Regained, Books 1-2
Papers due Friday, 11/19, 4 pm
Week 15 (11/25) Thanksgiving Day—No Class

Week 16 (12/2) Paradise Regained, Books 3-4
Course evaluations

Final Examination: Thursday, December 9, 6:30-9:20 pm

Possible Report and Paper Topics:

Milton's reception history
Milton's biographers
Milton in fiction
Milton's education
Milton and classical paganism
Milton and Christian humanism
Milton's training as a poet
Milton's sonnets
Milton as dramatist
Milton and the elegy
Milton and the epic genre
Milton's philosophy of education
the coming of the English Civil War
Milton and Puritanism
the quarrels about church government
the crisis of authority in the state
Milton's marriages and family life
Milton's divorce tracts
Milton and sex
Milton and gender
Milton and press freedom
reason in the poems and in the prose tracts
Milton and the Protectorate
Milton and republicanism
Milton and regicide
Milton as bureaucrat
Milton and Marvell
Milton and Restoration politics
Milton and empire
Milton's philosophy of history
Milton's works of history
Milton's blindness
Milton and music
Milton's theology

Paradise Lost
gestation
cosmology
the hero
embedded lyrics
style
and prophecy
Samson Agonistes and classical tragedy
Milton and “terrorism”
Paradise Regained as "brief epic"
current trends in Milton studies

English 541--Milton--Course Requirments

Response Papers: Once during the semester (Twice for graduate students—by the 7th and 15th weeks, respectively), you will hand in a brief (2-3 pages typed, double-spaced) paper responding to one or more of the texts under discussion. Precisely when and to what you make your response is up to you, as long as 1) you write one or two, depending on your undergraduate or graduate status, and 2) you respond to texts being discussed on that particular evening. Each response paper should offer a concise reading of—a way into—the text. In other words, it should ask some engaging questions of the poem or prose selection, and give some tentative answers to them. Although this is not an oral report (see below), and requires no research beyond a close reading of the text and notes, I do hope that these response papers will serve as sparks for discussion, as you raise questions and hold forth in class about the text.

Oral Reports: Once during the semester, you will give a 10-minute oral report presenting your research into and conclusions about some Miltonic topic. (You will sign up for report topics and dates on August 26; see the list of suggested topics, or see me about one of your own.) Your report should 1) briefly review important scholarship or criticism on the topic; 2) take a position of your own; and 3) be accompanied by a one-page handout photocopied for class distribution; the handout should include a simple outline of your remarks, and a selected bibliography for further reading. I recommend that you write out your remarks in full and time them, though I will not ask you to turn in the text of your remarks to me.

Final Research Paper: Due Friday November 19. This 12-15 page essay (6-8 pages for undergraduate students) will develop an interpretive argument about one or more of the texts discussed in the course, incorporating primary and/or secondary materials that you've discovered in your library research--perhaps as an outgrowth of your oral report. By "primary sources" I mean literary or historical texts which originated in the period(s) under study; by "secondary sources" I mean any critical, interpretive, or scholarly comment on those primary sources. However, despite the research emphasis here, the key word for this project is still essay. I am most interested in your interpretive ideas, and you should incorporate the fruits of research only as they are relevant to your thesis. Paper format must follow the MLA parenthetical style, using a Works Cited bibliography, as specified in the MLA Handbook.
Especially for the research paper, you'll want to come talk with me early in the process about choosing a topic, researching it, and focusing your topic to a thesis. As stated above, the response papers and oral report will serve as good warm-ups for you.
Late Papers: Late papers will drop a full letter grade per week-day. However, if you know that a major difficulty is coming up and you'll need more time, come see me well in advance.

Final Exam: This exam will consist of interpretive essays written about a set of representative Miltonic quotations.

Grading:

Grades will be determined according to the following percentages:

Response papers: 20% (10% each for graduate students)
Oral report: 20%
Final research paper: 45%
Final exam: 15%

Plus or minus considerations of attendance and class participation.

______________________________________________________________________

RESERVE READING LIST

Instructor: Christopher Hodgkins
Course: English 541: Milton

Call no. Loan Author Title

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE

Editions

PR3550.F31 Closed Milton, John The Works of John Milton vv. 1-3, pts. 1-2 (The Columbia Milton) & vv. 4-18

PR3551.B87 Closed Milton, John Complete Poetical Works (ed. Douglas Bush)

PR3551.F53 Closed Milton, John Paradise Lost vv. 1-4 (ed. Harris Fletcher) (Facsimile Edition)

PR3560.A1 Closed Milton, John Paradise Lost 1975 (ed. Scott Elledge) Norton Critical Edition

PR3569.W6 Closed Milton, John Prose Works (Yale Milton) vv. 1-8 (ed. Don M. Wolfe)

Biographies

PR3562.K4 Closed Kerrigan, William Sacred Complex: On the Psychogenesis of 1983 Paradise Lost

PR3581.B9 Closed Bush, Douglas John Milton

PR3581.F7 1-Week French, Joseph M., Life Records of John Milton vv. 1-5 ed.

PR3581.L45 2000 K Closed Lewalski, Barbara The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography

PR3581.P27 Closed Parker, W. R. John Milton vv. 1-2

PR3581.W47 1983 Closed Wilson, A. N. Life of John Milton

Guidebooks

PR3581.P65 1972 1-Day Potter, Lois Preface to Milton

PR3588.N5 1-Day Nicolson, Marjorie John Milton: A Reader's Guide to His Poetry

PR3588.C27 1989 ed.1-Day Danielson, Dennis, The Cambridge Companion to Milton

PR3588 .M484 19861-Day Milton's English Poetry: Being Entries from a Milton Encyclopedia

Bibliography

PR3581. P280 1987 c. 2 Closed Patrides, C. A. Annotated Critical Bibliography of John Milton

PR3588.S47 Closed Shawcross, John T. Milton: The Critical Heritage

Essay Collections

PR3581.M28 1-Week Martz, Louis, ed. Milton: A Collection of Critical Essays

PR3588.C7 c. 2 1-Week Critical Essays on Milton from ELH

PR3588.R46 19871-Week Nyquist, Mary & Margaret Ferguson, eds., Re-membering Milton: Essays on the Texts and Traditions

Concordances

PR3562.H8 1970 Closed Hudson, Gladys Paradise Lost: A Concordance

ffPR3592.P7 S7 1985 Closed Concordance to the English Prose of John Milton

STUDIES OF PARTICULAR WORKS

Lycidas

PR3558.A1 1966 1-Week Elledge, Scott Lycidas, Edited to Serve as an Introduction to Criticism

PR3558.M54 1983 1-Week Patrides, C. A. Milton's Lycidas: The Tradition and the Poem

Paradise Lost

PR3562.F4 1-Week Ferry, Anne Milton's Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost

PR3562.F5 1967 1-Week Fish, Stanley Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost

PR3562.F68 1-Week Frye, Northrop The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton's Epics

PR3562.G3 1965 1-Week Gardner, Helen A Reading of Paradise Lost

PR3562.L385 19851-Week Lewalski, Barbara Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms

PR3562.L4 1970 Closed Lewis, C. S. Preface to Paradise Lost

PR3562.M18 1-Week MacCaffrey, Isabel Paradise Lost as "Myth"

PR3562.M19 1993 1-Week McColley, Diane A Gust for Paradise: Milton's Eden and the Visual Kelsey Arts

PR3562.Q54 1983 1-Week Quilligan, Maureen Milton's Spenser: The Politics of Reading

PR3562.R3 1948 1-Week Rajan, Balachandra Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth-Century Reader

PR3562.S35 1988 1-Week Schwartz, Regina Remembering and Repeating: Biblical Creation in Paradise Lost

PR3562.S8 1962a Closed Summers, Joseph The Muse's Method: An Introduction to Paradise Lost

PR3562.T36 1992 1-Week Tanner, John Anxiety in Eden: A Kierkegaardian Reading of Paradise Lost

PR3562.W26 Closed Waldock, A. J. A. Paradise Lost and its Critics

PR3588.E35 Closed Eliot, T. S. Milton

Paradise Regained

PR3565.L48 1966 1-Week Lewalski, Barbara Milton's Brief Epic: The Genre, Meaning, and Art of Paradise Regained

Samson Agonistes

PR3566.R3 1-Week Radzinowicz, Toward Samson Agonistes: The Growth of Milton's Mary Ann Mind

SPECIAL TOPICS

America

F7.S83 1987 1-Week Stavely, Keith Puritan Legacies: Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition, 1630-1890

PR3588.V36 1993 1-Week Van Anglen, The New England Milton: Literary Reception and Cultural Authority in the Early Republic

Empire

PN1303.Q56 1993 1-Week Quint, David Epic and Empire: Politics and Generic Form from Virgil to Milton

PR408.I53 H63 2002 1-Week Hodgkins, Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Christopher Conscience in British Literature

PR3562 .E89 1996 1-Week Evans, J. Martin Milton's Imperial Epic: Paradise Lost and the Discourse of Colonialism

Gender

PR3562.T8 1987 1-Week Turner, James One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton

PR3581.S5 1993 1-Week Shawcross, John T. John Milton: The Self and the World

PR3587.3 .W58 1987 1-Week Wittreich, Joseph Feminist Milton

Heroism

PR3592 .P6 S7 1-Week Steadman, John M. Milton and the Renaissance Hero

Poetic Development

PR3588 .F57 2001 1-Week Fish, Stanley How Milton Works

PR3588.M376 1986 1-Week Martz, Louis Milton, Poet of Exile

PR3588.R86 1992 1-Week Rushdy, Ashraf Empty Garden: The Subject of Late Milton

Politics

DA135.M53 V66 1991 1-Week von Maltzahn, Milton's "History of Britain": Republican Historiography in the English Revolution

PR3562.M5570 1995 1-Week Armitage, David Milton and Republicanism

PR3588.B37 1988 1-Week Belsey, Catherine John Milton: Language, Gender, Power

PR3592.P64 F33 1995 1-Week Fallon, Robert Divided Empire: Milton's Political Imagery

PR3592.P64 F35 1993 1-Week Fallon, Robert Milton in Government

PR3592.P64 H5 1-Week Hill, Christopher Milton and the English Revolution

PR3592.P64 1-Week Knoppers, Laura Historicizing Milton: Spectacle, Power, and Poetry K57 1994 Lunger in Restoration England

PR3592.P64 M5 1981 1-Week Milner, Andrew John Milton and the English Revolution: A Study in the Sociology of Literature

PR3592.P7 Z33 1992 1-Week Zagorin, Perez Milton: Aristocrat and Rebel: The Poet and His Politics

PR3592.P8 K46 1986 1-Week Kendrick, Milton: A Study in Ideology and Form

Post-Structuralism

PR3562.G77 1987 1-Week Grossman, Michael "Authors to Themselves": Milton and the Revelation of History

PR3588 .R355 1983 1-Week Rapaport, Herman Milton and the Postmodern

Prose

PR3581.L47 1-Week Lieb, Michael Achievements of the Left Hand: Essays on the John Shawcross, Prose of John Milton

PR3592.H5 L68 1990 1-Week Loewenstein, Milton and the Drama of History

PR3592.P64 S8 1-Week Stavely, Keith The Politics of Milton's Prose Style

PR3592.P64 P65 1990 1-Week Loewenstein, Politics, Poetics, and Hermeneutics in Milton's Prose: Essays

Romanticism

PR590 .M55 1994 1-Week Low, Lisa Milton, the Metaphysicals, and Romanticism

PR3588 .K65 1997 1- Week Kolbrener, William Milton's Warring Angels : A Study of Critical Engagements

PR4144 .M6 1978b 1-Week Blake, William Milton

Style

PR3562.R54 1-Week Ricks, Christopher Milton's Grand Style

PR3586.P67 1-Week Prince, F. T. The Italian Element in Milton's Verse

PR3588.T8 1-Week Tuve, Rosemond Images and Themes in Five Poems by Milton

PR3592.K6 B3 1950 1-Week Banks, Theodore Milton's Imagery

Theology

BR756 .R444 1997 1-Week McEachern, Claire Religion and Culture in Renaissance England

PR428.C48 C46 2004 1 –Week Doerksen, Daniel and Christopher Hodgkins, eds.Centered on the Word: Literature, Scripture, and the Tudor-Stuart Middle Way

PR549.R4 R6 1-Week Ross, Malcolm M. Poetry and Dogma: The Transfiguration of Eucharistic Symbols in Seventeenth-Century English Poetry

PR3587 .3.R85 1996 1-Week Rumrich, John P. Milton Unbound: Controversy and Reinterpretation

PR3588.M220 1986 1-Week MacCallum, Hugh Milton and the Sons of God: The Divine Image in Milton's Epic Poetry

PR3592.G6 D75 1993 1-Week Driscoll, James P. The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton

PR3592.P5 M94 1987 1-Week Myers, William Milton and Free Will: An Essay in Criticism and Philosophy

R3592.R4 C56 1982 1-Week Christopher, Georgia Milton and the Science of the Saints

PR3592.R4 E55 1962 1-Week Empson, William Milton's God

PR3592.R4 H66 1993 1-Week Honeygoskey, Stephen R. Milton's House of God: The Invisible and Visible God

PR3592.R4 K4 1962 1-Week Kelley, Maurice This Great Argument: A Study of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana as a Gloss upon Paradise Lost

PR3594 .L37 2001 1-Week Lares, Jameela Milton and the Preaching Arts