{"title":"Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and the Political Problem of Chaos","authors":"W. Clement","doi":"10.1353/sel.2020.0006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores the political ramifications of chaos in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Through a close reading of Milton’s creation account, it argues that the narrative constraints of epic force the poet into assigning more persistence and antagonism to the prima materia than his theology or politics would like. It further argues that Milton’s poetic Chaos makes him an uneasy ally of Thomas Hobbes and Hobbes’s de facto political philosophy. The article demonstrates how, in order to resolve this political problem, Milton folds the anarchic material of Chaos into Adam and Eve, transforming its anarchic will into their free will.","PeriodicalId":45835,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2020-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sel.2020.0006","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This article explores the political ramifications of chaos in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Through a close reading of Milton’s creation account, it argues that the narrative constraints of epic force the poet into assigning more persistence and antagonism to the prima materia than his theology or politics would like. It further argues that Milton’s poetic Chaos makes him an uneasy ally of Thomas Hobbes and Hobbes’s de facto political philosophy. The article demonstrates how, in order to resolve this political problem, Milton folds the anarchic material of Chaos into Adam and Eve, transforming its anarchic will into their free will.
期刊介绍:
SEL focuses on four fields of British literature in rotating, quarterly issues: English Renaissance, Tudor and Stuart Drama, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century. The editors select learned, readable papers that contribute significantly to the understanding of British literature from 1500 to 1900. SEL is well known for thecommissioned omnibus review of recent studies in the field that is included in each issue. In a single volume, readers might find an argument for attributing a previously unknown work to Shakespeare or de-attributing a famous work from Milton, a study ofthe connections between class and genre in the Restoration Theater.