Destabilizing Milton

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; Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy; and Historicizing Theory. In addition, he has published essays in such journals as Renaissance Quarterly, Studies in English Literature, Exemplaria, Criticism, and the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

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