Throughout the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton, there are many instances in which the reader is presented with complex ideas that are soon after refuted, causing a joint empowerment and humiliation of the reader. It seems as though the text is written specifically to influence the reader to Milton’s opinions on power and free thinking while simultaneously giving readers the power to make their own conclusions about what Milton is presenting to them. I plan to argue in my seminar project that Milton’s awareness and intentional engagement with his reader throughout Paradise Lost adds to the effectiveness and success of the text. The reception of this epic poem in 18th century colonial America is of particular importance due to the significant influence of Puritan and republican themes portrayed in Paradise Lost on the foundation of America’s government and culture.
This seminar project will work in conjunction with my thesis to help analyze secondary sources and incorporate different literary criticisms into my paper. I want to incorporate reader-response criticism specifically into the project because I feel that my argument can be best supplemented using this criticism and I believe that it will help in the development of my SCE paper as well. Creating a connection between Paradise Lost and particular influences on the American Revolution using reader-response criticism will allow for a greater understanding of Milton’s political undertones in his writing and the subsequent possibility of influence from Paradise Lost into aspects of the American Revolution. Focusing in on the rhetoric of colonial America such as pamphlets and persuasive texts such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine and seeing the impact of Milton in those texts will help me to see more directly how large of an impact Milton’s ideas had on the American revolution.
Evidence will be drawn from Paradise Lost itself, as well as secondary sources that focus on the reader-response and interaction between Milton and his readers in Paradise Lost. Some key words I would like to incorporate into this project are reader experience, intention, affective stylistics, and resymbolization. By assessing the relationship between Milton and his readers in Paradise Lost, I can gain a better understanding of the text itself and how it could have influenced other writers and events. I will be further analyzing Paradise Lost and the Rise of the American Republic by Lydia Schulman as part of my seminar project.
Works Cited:
Fish, Stanley. “Surprised by Sin” – Stanley Fish | Harvard University Press, https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674857476
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Schulman, Lydia D. Paradise Lost and the Rise of the American Republic. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1992.