The Satanic EpicPrinceton University Press, 2003 - 382 pages The Satan of Paradise Lost has fascinated generations of readers. This book attempts to explain how and why Milton's Satan is so seductive. It reasserts the importance of Satan against those who would minimize the poem's sympathy for the devil and thereby make Milton orthodox. |
From inside the book
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... Narrative Theology of " therefore " ( 4 ) " The most heroic subject that ever was chosen " I. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATAN ( 1 ) The Old Enemy ( 2 ) Ancient Myth and Epic ( 3 ) Hesiod ( 4 ) Apocalypses ( 5 ) The satan ( 6 ) The New ...
... narrative does not allow us to forget for long our postlapsarian complicity with Satan . And even after he drops ignominously out of the poem in Book 10 with that splendid and ex- tended hiss , the seductive text keeps him active . One ...
... narrative demonstrates . Theoretically the Christian God may be " Omnipotent , / Immutable , Immortal , Infinite " ( 3.372-73 ) , and omni- scient to boot , but what the poem highlights is the combat myth that informs the New Testament ...
... Narrative Theology of " therefore " The heroic Satan of the Romantics is one of many roles that Satan adopts in the course of the poem . Like those great Shakespearean villains , Richard III or Iago , from whom he learned a lot , he is ...
... narrative logic that Fish misses by dismissing the " there- fore . " If we read it carefully we may see that the next and crucial step towards the Redemption , the Son's offer to sacrifice himself , indeed follows logically from the way ...
Contents
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATAN | 24 |
1 The Old Enemy | 25 |
2 Ancient Myth and Epic | 28 |
3 Hesiod | 30 |
4 Apocalypses | 35 |
5 The satan | 37 |
6 The New Testament | 39 |
7 The Early Church | 43 |
3 The Problem of Evil | 192 |
4 Satan and Ancient Evils | 195 |
Hells Fury | 196 |
6 The Darkness of Hell | 201 |
7 God created evil | 204 |
8 The Language of Sin | 206 |
9 Evil Eve | 207 |
10 Openings | 209 |
8 Heresy | 45 |
9 Medieval Heresy | 49 |
10 Old English Genesis to Chaucer | 50 |
11 Satans Rebellion | 54 |
12 Warfare and Imperialism | 56 |
13 Elizabethan Drama | 60 |
14 Politics | 62 |
15 The Miltonic Moment | 64 |
16 Subversive Satan | 66 |
17 Critical Controversies | 69 |
THE EPIC VOICE | 77 |
2 Hope and Despair | 81 |
3 Dark designs | 86 |
4 Devils into Dwarfs | 87 |
S The Critical Need for the Narrator | 90 |
6 Epic Similes | 100 |
7 Erring | 105 |
8 Parliamentary Devils | 108 |
FOLLOW THE LEADER | 114 |
1 Chaos | 115 |
2 Approaching Paradise | 124 |
3 Satans Entry into Paradise | 129 |
5 Sex | 134 |
MY SELF AM HELL | 147 |
1 Niphates | 148 |
2 Faustus and the Abyss | 152 |
3 God in Satan | 155 |
4 Hell in Heaven | 157 |
5 Witchcraft | 160 |
SATANS REBELLION | 167 |
1 Rebellion in Hesiod | 170 |
2 Gods Creative Word | 171 |
3 Satans Theology | 176 |
4 Sources of Satans Motive | 180 |
5 Hebrews | 183 |
6 Psalm 2 | 185 |
THE LANGUAGE OF EVIL | 188 |
2 Hate in Heaven | 190 |
11 Perverse | 212 |
12 Odium Dei | 214 |
OF MANS FIRST DIS | 217 |
1 Dis | 218 |
2 Satans dark suggestions | 221 |
3 Quibbles | 224 |
4 Vergil | 228 |
S Ovid | 229 |
6 Dante | 233 |
7 Difference | 235 |
HOMER IN MILTON THE ATTENDANCE MOTIF AND THE GRACES | 239 |
SATAN TEMPTER | 259 |
2 Stupidly good | 261 |
3 Sexual Serpents | 263 |
4 Discourse | 265 |
5 The Seductive Text | 268 |
6 Commentators | 272 |
7 What delight | 277 |
8 Satans Sewers | 280 |
9 Satanic Verses | 282 |
IF THEY WILL HEAR | 285 |
AT THE SIGN OF THE DOVE AND SERPENT | 301 |
1 Irenaeus | 303 |
2 The Wisdom of the Serpent | 304 |
3 Image | 305 |
4 The Brazen Serpent | 308 |
5 The Meaning of History | 309 |
6 Christ and Serpent | 311 |
THE STRUCTURES OF PARADISE LOST | 314 |
SIGNS PORTENTOUS | 329 |
2 Disastrous twilight | 332 |
3 Editors | 338 |
4 SunSon | 341 |
5 Reading Signs | 342 |
6 Good with bad expect to hear | 344 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 349 |
371 | |