Typology and Milton’s Masterplot

Abstract

“In Paradise Lost the typological view of history yields progressive politics.” Drawing on theorists of typology ranging from Coleridge to Auerbach, to Gordon Teskey and Jacques Monod, Hushagen finds Miltonic typology to be “historical and teleonomic rather than transcendent or anagogic: his figures exhibit ‘a purpose or project’ but without a final cause or ultimate fulfillment that would supersede them.”