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Exercising Milton

Al Shoaf

Sample Syllabus:

ENG 413: Milton
Spring 2002
Dr. Berglund
Criticism Review (paper 2) and Long Essay (paper 3) on Paradise Lost Read as much of Paradise Lost as you can during spring break—at least through Book 9. You need to start
thinking about a topic for your long essay, and you can't do so until you have a better sense of how issues and characters develop.
The final assignment is a 2,500-3,000 word essay on Paradise Lost. The paper must be informed by at least one work of literary criticism and must include close readings of the poem. You may, but need not, use Areopagitica, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, or Comus to shape your analysis of Paradise Lost. I have broken the assignment down into the following steps.
1. Criticism Review, due Wednesday, 10 April. I have placed on reserve 12 articles or chapters grouped under four broad topics: "Eve," "Milton as poet," "politics" and "God." Read all the criticism listed under one of these topics and then write a summary of the argument of two of the articles. You may either integrate your discussion of the two articles or you may write about each article separately. Identify each critic's thesis and the ideas that strike you as most interesting. Include one or two brief quotations from each article and analyze their
meaning and importance. Finally, comment on what issues raised by the criticism you might explore further in your paper on Paradise Lost. This review should run 1,000 - 1,500 words.
Grades for the criticism review will be based on a) the appropriateness of your choices for summary and quotation analysis; b) the accuracy of your summaries and analysis of quotations; c) the correctness and readability of your prose; and d) the quality of your ideas for further exploration. You may, of course, disagree with the conclusions reached in the article(s). I will supply a sample criticism review written by me when we return from break.
2. Thesis proposal, due Wednesday, 24 April. Once you finish reading Paradise Lost and have my comments on your criticism review, work on defining an original thesis for the long essay. I encourage you to build on the foundation that you laid in the criticism review but you are not required to stick with everything you wrote. On 24 April, give me, preferably via email, one or two paragraphs (around 250 words) proposing the thesis and rough outline for your long paper. You will not be graded on this proposal but handing it in is required. I will provide feedback as soon as possible.
3. Final Essay, due at our CEP meeting, Wednesday, 8 May, 3:40 p.m. This paper may incorporate material from your third paraphrase and from the criticism review. Your paper must use at least one secondary source, though it need not be one discussed in your criticism review. If you choose to read other critics, I advise you to begin by consulting Flannagan's bibliography and the anthologies of criticism already on reserve. There is a great mass of critical material on the Internet but not all of it is reliable. Grades on the final paper will be based on 1) the originality, focus and persuasiveness of your thesis; 2) your insight into Milton's poetry and ideas; 3) your skill at close reading and incorporation of quotation analysis; 4) your ability to integrate criticism into your essay without letting the critics' ideas take over the paper; 5) the clarity of your prose; 6) your adherence to rules of grammar and mechanics; and 7) the accuracy of your citations, attributions, and bibliography.

Please note that I am always happy to read a draft of any paper; I return comments within 48 hours.

Articles and Books on Reserve

Politics: Merritt Y. Hughes, Ten Perspectives on Milton. New Haven: Yale UP, 1965. Chapter 7, "Satan and the 'Myth' of the Tyrant" Steven Jablonski, "'Freely We Serve': Paradise Lost and the Paradoxes of Personal Liberty." In Arenas of Conflict, ed. Kristin Pruitt McColgan and Charles W. Durham. London: Associated University Presses, 1997: 107-119.
Mary Ann Radzinowicz, "The Politics of Paradise Lost." In Politics of Discourse: The literature and History of Seventeenth-century England, ed. Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987: 204-229.
God: Robert Crosman, Reading Paradise Lost. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980. Chapter 2, "Light Invisible"
William Empson, Milton's God. London: Chatto & Windus, 1961. Chapter 3, "Heaven" (Also recommended,
Chapter 1, "Critics") Geoffrey Hartman, "Milton's Counterplot" (1958). Reprinted in Milton: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed.
Louis L. Martz. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1966: 100-108.

Milton as Poet: *Janet Adelman, "Creation and the Place of the Poet in Paradise Lost." In The Author in His Work:Essays on a Problem in Criticism. Ed. Louis L. Martz and Aubrey Williams. New Haven: Yale UP, 1978: 51-70.
Anne Davidson Ferry, Milton's Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1963. Chapter 1, "Tone: The Bird and the Blind Bard." Stanley E. Fish, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost. New York: MacMillan, 1967.
Chapter 5, "The Interpretative Choice"

Eve: *Christine Froula, "When Eve Reads Milton: Undoing the Canonical Economy." Critical Inquiry 10 (1983): 321-47.
Diane McColley, "Eve and the Arts of Eden." In Milton and the Idea of Woman, ed. Julia M. Walker.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988: 100-119. *James Grantham Turner, "Passion and Subordination." Excerpted from "Love Made in the First Age: Edenic Sexuality in Paradise Lost and its Analogues." One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton. Oxford UP, 1987.

*If a title is asterisked, it's a photocopy; otherwise the entire book is on reserve.

Another Sample Syllabus:

ENG 413: Milton
Spring 2002
Dr. Lisa Berglund
Office: Ketcham 322; mailbox in KH 326; ext. 4049
Electronic addresses: berglul@bscmail.buffalostate.edu; www.lisaberglund.com
Office Hours: MWF 10:00-11:00 a.m., MW, 2:00-3:00 p.m. and by appointment
Course Objective: Attempting to become Milton's "fit audience," we will devote the semester to a rigorous reading of Paradise Lost. The course will begin to place Milton's poem and his politics in the context of both 17th and 21st century ethics, theology, aesthetics and morality.
Text: The Riverside Milton, ed. Roy Flannagan. You must use this edition; other editions do not have the same spelling and punctuation, and our reading assignments will rely heavily on Flannagan's notes and bibliography. You will need a King James translation of the Bible. I recommend the version published by Thomas Nelson; it's inexpensive and attractive. You also may access the King James Bible online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html.

Course Requirements: Three essays, one 750-1250 words (15%), one 1,000-1,500 words (15%), and one 2,500-3,000 words (35%); three short paraphrases of passages from Paradise Lost (grades averaged; 15%), and participation in class discussion (20%). Material from the second paper and the paraphrases may be incorporated into the longer essay. You must
complete all work assigned in order to pass.
Papers must follow format guidelines that I will distribute in class. Grades will be based on the clarity of your thesis, the focus and persuasiveness of your evidence, the accuracy of your interpretation of quotations, and your adherence to rules of grammar, mechanics and documentation. You may hand in a partial or complete draft of any paper in advance for my
comments. I prefer to receive such papers via email (either as a Word attachment or as your text message); I will email my comments to you within 48 hours. My comments generally address thesis, evidence and organization; I do not correct grammatical, typographical or mechanical errors on drafts. However, you are responsible for correcting any such errors before handing in a final version of the essay. Late papers will be marked down 1/3 of a grade.
When you are assigned a study question to answer during class discussion, prepare 3-5 minutes of organized comments. Use the questions to guide your reading; all members of the class should participate in discussion of all questions. Depending on the size of the class, each student will be assigned 3 or 4 study questions over the course of the semester. You will receive a grade on your answer to each question, which will be averaged together with your grade for ad hoc contributions to discussion. If you miss class on a day when you are assigned a study question, you will earn a "0" for participation (i.e., you will lose 20% of your total grade). If you miss more than one question, your final grade will be lowered a further 1/3 of a level (e.g., from a C to a C-). If you are unexpectedly unable to be in class for your study question, we may be able to work out an arrangement so that you will not be penalized.
On days you are not assigned a study question, attendance is not required, but frequent absences may negatively affect your class participation grade. You are responsible for collecting any materials distributed during your absences before the next class meeting. The syllabus, paper format instructions and paper topic handouts are available at my website.

Classroom protocols: 1) Turn off all cell phones before entering the classroom. 2) Do not leave the room during class except in an emergency. 3) Always bring the anthology with you to class. If you have or may have a disability that requires accommodation to fulfill the requirements of the class, contact the Office of Special Services for Students with Disabilities, at 878-4450.

Essential reading: 1) Finish reading Paradise Lost by the time we return from spring break. Your second and third papers will require knowledge of the entire poem and you will need to begin working on these papers before our discussion reaches the later books. 2) If you are not familiar with the King James Bible, read the following books as soon as possible: Genesis,
Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, 1 Corinthians and Revelation. I will assign specific passages from these and other books to read in conjunction with Paradise Lost and the prose works. 3) If you have not studied Greek and Roman mythology and poetry, read a summary of famous myths. Prose versions written for children are often quite good, though they may omit or sanitize the
sex.

Wednesday, 23 January Introduction
Monday, 28 January "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"
Wednesday, 30 January "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"
Monday, 4 February "On Shakespeare"; how to write a paraphrase
Wednesday, 6 February Comus
Monday, 11 February Comus; first paper (close reading of short poem) due
Wednesday, 13 February The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
Monday, 18 February Presidents Day, no class
Wednesday, 20 February Areopagitica
Monday, 25 February Areopagitica
Wednesday, 27 February "On Paradise Lost" (Marvell's poem); Paradise Lost, Book 1
Monday, 4 March Paradise Lost, Book 1
Wednesday, 6 March Paradise Lost, Books 1-2; 1st paraphrase due
Monday, 11 March Paradise Lost, Book 2
Wednesday, 13 March Paradise Lost, Book 3
Monday, 18 March Paradise Lost, Book 4
Wednesday, 20 March Paradise Lost, Book 4; 2nd paraphrase due
SPRING BREAK
Monday, 1 April Paradise Lost, Book 5
Wednesday, 3 April Paradise Lost, Book 6
Monday, 8 April Paradise Lost, Book 7
Wednesday, 10 April Paradise Lost, Book 8; criticism review due
Monday, 15 April Paradise Lost, Book 8
Wednesday, 17 April Paradise Lost, Book 9
Monday, 22 April Paradise Lost, Book 9; 3rd paraphrase due
Wednesday, 24 April Paradise Lost, Book 9
Monday, 29 April Paradise Lost, Book 10
Wednesday, 1 May Paradise Lost, Books 11-12
Final paper due during ECP

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