CRITICISM

Fessenden, Tracy. “‘Shapes of Things Divine’: Images, Iconoclasm, and Resistant Materiality in Paradise Lost.” Christianity and Literature 48, No. 4 (summer 1999): 425-43.

Suggests that Milton counters the negative position on images set forth in his prose tracts, instead creating the possibility that images could be redeemed.

Fish, Stanley. “‘Not so much a Teaching as an Intangling’: The Good Temptation.” In Surprised by Sin: The Reader in “Paradise Lost,” second edition, pp. 38-56. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Argues that the challenges of reading Paradise Lost force the reader into the position of Adam and Eve.

Gulden, Ann Torday. “Is Art ‘Nice’? Art and Artifice at the Outset of Temptation in Paradise Lost.” Milton Quarterly 34, no. 1 (March 2000): 17-24.

Contrasts the art of Eve with the artifice of Satan; employs the Renaissance medium of emblems for comparison.

Hill, Christopher. “The Fall of Man.” In Milton and the English Revolution, pp. 341-53. London: Faber and Faber, 1977.

Considers the relationship between Milton's concept of the Fall and the failure of the English Revolution.

Jordan, Matthew. Milton and Modernity: Politics, Masculinity, and Paradise Lost. New York: Palgrave, 2001, 225 p.

Political interpretation which posits Milton as a proto-modern with respect to his ideas about the rights of individuals and a limited egalitarianism.

Kietzman, Mary Jo. “The Fall into Conversation with Eve: Discursive Difference in Paradise Lost.” Criticism 39, No. 1 (winter 1997): 55-88.

Emphasizes conversation in Eden as the dominant mode for developing subjectivity; suggests that Adam and Eve are compelled to create language adequate to their experiences.

Knoppers, Laura Lunger. “Rewriting the Protestant Ethic: Discipline and Love in Paradise Lost.” ELH 58, no. 3 (fall 1991): 545-59.

Links Milton's depiction of marriage and self-realization to nascent capitalism and the development of Weber's Protestant work ethic.

Lifson, Martha R. “Creation and the Self in Paradise Lost and the Confessions.” Centennial Review 19, no. 3 (1975): 187-97.

Compares Milton's and Augustine's methods for describing the development of the self and salvation, focusing especially on Milton's prologues.

Magro, Maria. “Milton's Sexualized Woman and the Creation of a Gendered Public Sphere.” Milton Quarterly 35, No. 2 (2001): 98-112.

Studies of Milton's divorce tracts along with Paradise Lost to illuminate how Milton fashions an ideal femininity.

Martin, Thomas L. “On the Margin of God: Deconstruction and the Language of Satan in Paradise Lost.” Milton Quarterly 29, no. 2 (May 1995): 41-7.

Applies a Derridean method of deconstruction to Paradise Lost in order to assert the possibility of a middle ground between a purely authoritarian text and a language with no boundaries or controls.

Nyquist, Mary. “Gynesis, Genesis, Exegesis, and the Formation of Milton's Eve.” In Cannibals, Witches, and Divorce: Estranging the Renaissance, edited by Marjorie Garber, pp. 147-208. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Considers Milton's Eve as the poet's attempt to reconcile the two distinct creation stories of Genesis.

Ricks, Christopher. “The Milton Controversy.” In Milton's Grand Style, pp. 1-21. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

Defends Paradise Lost against critics who find its style flawed and inconsistent.

Schulman, Lydia Dittler. “Paradise Lost and the Language of Revolution.” In Paradise Lost and the Rise of the American Republic, pp. 141-79. Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University Press, 1992.

Examines how American revolutionary leaders adapted the rhetoric of Milton to the republican cause.

Additional coverage of Milton's life and works can be found in the following sources published by the Gale Group: British Writers, Vol. 2; British Writers Retrospective Supplement, Vol. 2; Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, 1660-1789; Discovering Authors; Discovering Authors 3.0; Discovering Authors: British Edition; Discovering Authors: Canadian Edition; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-studied Authors, Poets; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 131, 151; Epics for Students, Vol. 1; Exploring Poetry; Literature and Its Times, Vol. 1; Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Vols. 9, 43; Literature Resource Center; Poets: American and British; Poetry Criticism, Vols. 19, 29; Poetry for Students, Vol. 3; Reference Guide to English Literature, Ed. 2; World Literature Criticism; World Literature and Its Times, Vol. 3; World Poets.