engleski

Satan's Allegories and Milton's Epics

While Milton's poetry employs a range of terms denoting secondary or spiritual meaning, the term "allegory" is almost entirely absent. Moreover, its single appearance is from the mouth of Satan, who professes to wonder, in Paradise Regained, whether the kingdom portended for Christ is "Real or Allegoric." The paper explores this passage in relation to the sentiment epitomized by Calvin's condemnation of allegory, "which Sathan by his most pestilent subtiltie went about to bring into the Churche, that the doctrine of the Scripture might be doubtfull, and voyde of all certeintie." Does Paradise Regained dramatize the very moment at which this "pestilent subtiltie" first occurs in history? Is Satan inventing Christian allegory here, to be distinguished from typology (which Milton explicitly advocates in De doctrina Christiana) precisely by its either/or approach? What implication does this have for the contested representational mode of Milton's biblical epics?

allegory; Milton; Satan; Paradise Regained

nije evidentirano