In this episode of Promiscuous Listening, Marissa talks with Dr. Rachel Trubowitz (University of New Hampshire) about death and renewal in the final two books of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Particular attention is given to Eve's role in the epic's concluding lessons about Jesus's death and Christian salvation. For Milton, “Jesus son of Mary second Eve” (10.183) descends spiritually on the maternal line rather than genealogically through the paternal bloodline. In this way, as Dr. Trubowitz puts it, "Bloodline and primogeniture (male birthright) play no role in defining Jesus’s sovereignty" in Paradise Lost -- nor should they, according to Milton, in England's governance.

Resources for this episode: 

- John Milton, The Passion (1645, 1673) 

- John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671)

- Pope John Paul XXIII led the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, including its “repudiate[ion of] the ancient charge of collective Jewish guilt in the death of Jesus."

- Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” King James Bible via Bible Gateway.

- The description of the final books of Paradise Lost as an “undigested lump of futurity” comes from C.S. Lewis’s A Preface to Paradise Lost (Oxford University Press, 1947).

- Check out this contemporary engraving on the British Museum website of Charles II’s exhumation and posthumous execution of Oliver Cromwell’s body.

More about our guest, Dr. Rachel Trubowitz, Professor of English and former President of the Milton Society of America (website)

In addition to her many publications on gender and race in Milton and his contemporaries, Dr. Trubowitz’s current work focuses on mathematics in early modern English literature and culture. Here’s a sampling of her recent scholarship:

- “Reading Milton and Newton in the Radical Reformation: Poetry, Mathematics, and Religion.” ELH: English Literary History 84, no. 1 (2017): 33-62.

- “The Consolation of Natural Philosophy: Margaret Cavendish and the English Revolution Book.” The Oxford Handbook of Literature & the English Revolution, edited by Laura Lunger Knoppers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 656-668.

- Nature and Nurture in Seventeenth-Century English Literature. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2012.

- “’’The People of Asia and with Them the Jews’: Israel, Asia, and England in Milton's Writing.” Milton and the Jews, edited by Douglas A. Brooks. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 151-177.

In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Lara Dodds (Mississippi State University) about sex and gender in Paradise Lost. Our conversation focuses on Eve and book 10, but it also ranges to other figures, including Sin, and other books in Milton's epic. 

Here are some resources to support your listening:

References:

- Enjambment: “The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped.” (Poetry Foundation)

- Definitions and examples of the rhetorical figures synecdoche, epithet (see epitheton), and irony may be found on Silva Rhetoricae 

- Joseph Swetnam, The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women (1615). Read the full text – as well as link to Rachel Speght’s response, A Mouzell for Melastomas (1617) – here. 

- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818): Read more about the connection between these two texts on the British Library website.

Select bibliography:

- Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.

- Thomas H. Luxon, Single Imperfection: Milton, Marriage, and Friendship. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2005.

- Lara Dodds, “Women’s History, Gender History, and Milton Studies.” Milton Quarterly 48, no. 3 (2014): 172-178.

In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Debapriya Sarkar (University of Connecticut) theories of knowledge, early modern science, and the fall as experimentation in book 9 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

References:

Select scholarship:

In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Mary Grace Elliott (Kennesaw State University) about knowledge in book 8 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

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In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Angelica Duran (Purdue University) about creation in book 7 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

Terminology:

Editions and Images:

Selection of Dr. Duran’s scholarship:

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In this episode, Marissa talks with ancient military historian Dr. Paul Bardunias about warfare and martial bodies in book 6 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

References:

Select bibliography:

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In this episode, Marissa talks with independent Milton scholar Dr. Philippa Earle about monism in book 5 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

Terminology:

Select bibliography:

Contact Dr. Earle by email: [email protected]; and follow her on Twitter: @uncouthswain!

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In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Ari Friedlander (University of Mississippi) about sexuality and gender in book 4 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

Terminology:

· wanton (e.g., Paradise Lost 4.306): 17th-century meanings range from rebellious to reckless, from playful and carefree to lustful and promiscuous ("wanton, adj. and n." OED Online. December 2020. Oxford University Press.)

· prelapsarian: Generally, a state of innocence. In specific relation to Paradise Lost, before the fall of humanity as related in Genesis

· postlapsarian: Generally, a state of sin and guilt. In specific relation to Paradise Lost, after Adam and Eve's disobedience to God.

References:

Select bibliography:

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In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Mario Murgia (National Autonomous University of Mexico) about theology, politics, and poetics in book 3 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

Terminology:

· Soteriology: doctrine of salvation

· Arminianism: Check out this entry by Thomas Talbott on “Heaven and Hell in Christian Thought” (2021) in the open-access Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

· “Paradise of Fools”: This phrase appears in Paradise Lost 3.496 but may refer to part or all of the passage 3.440-497.

Selection of Dr. Murgia’s scholarship:

· “Either in Prose or Rhyme: Translating Milton in(to) Latin America.” Milton in Translation, edited by Angelica Duran, Islam Issa, and Jonathan R. Olson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017. 279-292.

· “Gerard Manley Hopkins, or the Poem as (Baroque) Prayer.” Hopkins Quarterly (2011): 113-131.

· Global Milton and Visual Art, edited by Angelica Duran and Mario Murgia, Lexington Books 2021. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793617064/Global-Milton-and-Visual-Art

· “Milton in Revolutionary Hispanoamerica.” Milton Studies 58 (2017): 203-222.

· (In Spanish) Versos escritos en agua: la influencia de Paradise Lost en Byron, Keats y Shelley, FFyL, UNAM, 2018. http://novedadeseditoriales.filos.unam.mx/tag/versos-escritos-en-agua/

· (In Spanish) El mundo perdone, Aliosventos, 2017. https://www.aliosventos.com/index.php/aliosventos/catalog/book/55

· (in Spanish translation) Milton, John, and Francisco Granados Maldonado, El paraíso perdido, Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, Mexico, 1858.

Learn more about Dr. Murgia’s publications! Check out his author page for MadHat Press.

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In this episode, Marissa talks with Dr. Amrita Dhar (The Ohio State University) about disability and empire in book 2 of Paradise Lost.

Here are some resources to support your listening:

References:

· Tobin Siebers. Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008.

· The phrase "fit audience ... though few" comes up a few times in the podcast; it appears in book 7 of Paradise Lost.

· The Readie and Easie Way is a political tract published in 1660 in which Milton, despite England's restoration of the monarchy, makes the case for "re-settling a republican commonwealth" -- a proposal that (according to Thomas Luxon, editor of The John Milton Room) "[Milton] ironically refers to as 'readie' and 'easie.'"

· Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (London, 1598-1600). A transcription is available on the open-access database Perseus: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections(here’s a page with extensive references to Bengala: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0070%3Anarrative%3D450); to view an early modern printed edition of Hakluty’s text, check out Stanford’s Renaissance Exploration Map Collection: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/renaissance-exploration/catalog/wp151rz1920.

Selection of Dr. Dhar’s scholarship:

·  "Toward Blind Language: John Milton Writing, 1648–1656." Milton Studies 60, no. 1 (2018): 75-107.

· “Seeing Feelingly: Sight and Service in King Lear.” Disability, Health and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body, edited by Sujata Iyengar. Routledge, 2015, pp. 76-92.

· “Madhusudan’s Miltonic Epic: The Meghnad-Badh Kabya.” Milton Across Borders and Media, ed. Angelica Duran and Islam Issa (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

· “When They Consider How Their Light Is Spent: On Intersectional Race and Disability Theories in the Classroom.” Race in the European Renaissance: A Classroom Guide, ed. Anna Wainwright and Matthieu Chapman (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Press, forthcoming).

Want to listen to more of Dr. Dhar talking about disability studies? Check out her interview with BritGrad, the British Graduate Shakespeare Conference: https://www.britgrad.com/post/plenary-interview-amrita-dhar.

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