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24. Samson Agonistes (cont.)
00:44:28
YaleCourses
16 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

In the final lecture of the course, the analysis of Samson Agonistes comes to a conclusion with an exploration of the poem's sexual imagery. Milton's choice of subject matter is puzzled over, as are the ethics of his tragic hero, particularly when compared to the heroes of Milton's previous epics. The poem is positioned as a means by which Milton ultimately resolves the poetic, religious, and career-related crises of his earlier poem, "The Passion," and the compelling relationship between the corpus and the poet's biography is revisited one final time.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction
02:07 - Chapter 2. Why Did Milton Choose Samson for the Subject of his Final Work?
35:32 - Chapter 3. Final Thoughts on Milton

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

23. Samson Agonistes
00:44:04
YaleCourses
8 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This introduction to Samson Agonistes focuses on a psycho-sexual reading of the poem, with particular emphasis placed on the poem's peculiar association of sexuality with violence. The characterization of Dalila and her similarity to Samson is discussed. The problems inherit in Miltonic heroism, especially self-sufficiency and the nature of heroic sacrifice, are expounded upon.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: "Samson Agonistes"
01:57 - Chapter 2. When was "Samson Agonistes" Written?
17:14 - Chapter 3. "Samson Agonistes": The Most Intense Expression of Misogyny in the Miltonic Canon
25:38 - Chapter 4. Dalila's Dialogue
36:42 - Chapter 5. Samson: The Nursling of God

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

22. Paradise Regained, Books III-IV
00:37:52
YaleCourses
18 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

In this second lecture on Paradise Regained, the three temptations are examined and Milton's unusual departure from their account in the Gospel of Luke is discussed. The poem's tacit assertion of the superiority of knowledge and ethics over action is probed. Considerable time is spent examining the Son's rejection of classical literature. Finally, Book Four's allusion to the riddle of the sphinx serves as a springboard to a consideration of the poem's Oedipal elements.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: The Notion of Identity in Paradise Regained and "Paradise Lost"
03:48 - Chapter 2. Who is John Milton?
10:31 - Chapter 3. The Three Temptations of the Son of God by Satan
42:33 - Chapter 4. Oedipus and the Sphinx's Riddle

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

21. Paradise Regained, Books I-II
00:49:46
YaleCourses
20 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This lecture treats the first two books of the sequel to Paradise Lost, Paradise Reqained. The difference in style and subject matter is described. The poem's depiction of the Son of God and Satan, specifically the characters' seeming inability to recollect any of the events of Paradise Lost or the Bible, is closely analyzed. At the lecture's conclusion, similarities between the Son's slowly developing sense of his identity and Milton's own narrative of his poetic development are examined.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: "Paradise Regained"
07:45 - Chapter 2. Adam's Misinterpretation of The Protoevangelium
21:55 - Chapter 3. Jesus is Baptized by John the Baptist
37:47 - Chapter 4. "Paradise Regained": A Negation and Renunciation of "Paradise Lost"

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

20. Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII (cont.)
00:45:44
YaleCourses
11 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

In this final lecture on Paradise Lost, Book Twelve's justification for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden is examined alongside the Genesis account. The nature of Milton's God, whether literal or liberal, is examined at length. The poem's closing lines are closely read, with substantial attention paid to Milton's final, complicated take on the poem-long consideration of Providence and free will.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction
04:37 - Chapter 2. "The Christian Doctrine": Milton's Theological Treatise
08:58 - Chapter 3. Milton, The Book of Genesis and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve
17:57 - Chapter 4. Milton's Conflicting Accounts of Key Moments in Christian History
31:45 - Chapter 5. God's Divine and Eternal Providence

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

19. Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII
00:51:09
YaleCourses
16 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

Books Eleven and Twelve of Paradise Lost and their radical departure from the poem's previous style are discussed. The transformation of Milton's famously sonorous verse into a more didactic mode is closely documented, and the poem's increasing emphasis on visual instruction is underscored in a study of the Archangel Michael's lesson on the history of the post-fallen world. Considerable time is devoted to both a consideration of Milton's late politics and Book Eleven's depiction of the destruction of paradise.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: The Last Two Books of "Paradise Lost"
09:00 - Chapter 2. Recap of the Treatise on Licensing
20:03 - Chapter 3. "Paradise Lost" Book XI: A Vision of Michael's History Lesson
38:16 - Chapter 4. "Paradise Lost" Book XII: A Narration of Michael's History Lesson

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

18. Paradise Lost, Books IX-X
00:51:42
YaleCourses
13 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This second lecture on the Fall traces Milton's use of the word wander, in all of its forms, across the poem. The transformation of wander from its pre-fallen sense to its more nefarious incarnation following the transgression is examined closely. The wider literary context of the concept of wandering, with particular emphasis placed on its importance to the romance genre, is briefly discussed. The reductive forces of Book Nine -- particularly its tendency to transform the moral ambivalence, disputed sexual hierarchy, and general poetic ambiguity of earlier books into more definitive representations -- are considered, with the lecture ultimately suggesting that the poem begins to turn away in Book Nine from many of its proto-feminist elements.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: The Fall, Language and Literature
06:33 - Chapter 2. Milton's Motivations for writing about The Fall
14:41 - Chapter 3. Tracing the History of the Word "Wandering" as it Progresses through the Poem
31:31 - Chapter 4. A New Understanding of Eve
41:07 - Chapter 5. "Paradise Lost" Book X: The Consequences of The Fall

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

17. Paradise Lost, Book IX
00:47:04
YaleCourses
14 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

Book Nine and the depiction of the Fall are presented. Adam and Eve's dialogue -- especially their perspectives on labor, temptation, and the nature of the garden -- is examined. Satan's strategic temptation of Eve is closely analyzed. At the lecture's conclusion, Adam and Eve's new fallen sight is discussed, with particular emphasis placed on the reference to the "veil" of pre-fallen innocence. Overall, the tension between doctrinal and subversive perspectives on the pre-fallen hierarchy of Eden is underscored.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: "Paradise Lost" Book IX
03:01 - Chapter 2. Adam and Eve, Arguing?
10:19 - Chapter 3. The Argument between Adam and Eve on the Morning of the Fall
36:03 - Chapter 4. The Promise of Equality and its Importance to Eve after the Fall

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

16. Paradise Lost, Books VII-VIII
00:46:15
YaleCourses
15 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This lecture on Books Seven and Eight of Paradise Lost focuses on Milton's account of the Creation. The poet's persistent interest in the imagery of digestion is explored with help from the proto-scientific theories of the seventeenth-century philosopher Paracelsus. The moment at which Milton names and assigns a gender to his muse is examined. Finally, Milton's use of gender in the Creation account is explored in light of previous discussions of the poem's complex sexual hierarchy; particular emphasis is placed on Raphael's similarly gendered account of celestial hierarchy in Book Eight.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Milton's Theory of Monism
05:09 - Chapter 2. "Paradise Lost" Book VII: The Book of Creation
36:09 - Chapter 3. "Paradise Lost" Book VIII: Reasserting the Subordination of Woman to Man

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

15. Paradise Lost, Books V-VI
00:52:35
YaleCourses
10 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

The description of human sexual hierarchy in Book Four of Paradise Lost is contrasted with the depiction of angelic hierarchy in Book Five. Both the Archangel Raphael's and Satan's accounts and theories of creation are examined. The poem's complex and vacillating endorsement of arbitrary decree, on the one hand, and egalitarian self-determination, on the other, is probed. The nature of matter and physical being in Heaven and Eden are explored with particular emphasis placed on the poem's monistic elements. Overall, Milton's willingness to question accepted religious, social, and political doctrine, even that which authorities in his own poem seem to express, is stressed.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Men vs. Women: The Coexistence of Freedom and Social Hierarchy in "Paradise Lost" Book IV
08:49 - Chapter 2. Angels vs. Humans: The Coexistence of Freedom and Social Hierarchy in "Paradise Lost" Book V
40:34 - Chapter 3. Satan's Discussion with Abdiel

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

14. Paradise Lost, Book IV
00:51:43
YaleCourses
12 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This lecture examines Book Four's depiction of Adam and Eve and the sexual politics of life in Eden. Seventeenth-century political theory, particularly the work of Thomas Hobbes, is considered with a focus on then-contemporary theories of the structure and government of the first human societies. Critical perspectives on what have variously been proposed as sexist and feminist elements of Milton's Eden are surveyed. Milton's struggle with the problem of depicting an unfallen world to a fallen audience is closely detailed. The lecture concludes with a study of Rembrandt's 1638 drawing, "Adam and Eve."

00:00 - Chapter 1. Dissimiles in "Paradise Lost": Fallen Representation of Unfallen-ness
10:16 - Chapter 2. Politics and Seventeenth-Century Descriptions of Adam and Eve
15:45 - Chapter 3. Milton's Political Philosophy
26:29 - Chapter 4. What Made Adam and Eve Unequal?

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

13. Paradise Lost, Book III
00:48:53
YaleCourses
14 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

In this second lecture on Book Three of Paradise Lost, the dialogue between God and the Son in heaven is explored with particular attention paid to Milton's modification of the Calvinist theory of predestination. The terms and implications of Milton's attempt to justify the ways of God to man are considered. Milton's misgivings regarding the doctrine of the Trinity are examined, and the relationship between his theology and seventeenth-century political movements is expounded upon.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Milton's Vindication of God
09:55 - Chapter 2. The Faculty of Free Will
25:52 - Chapter 3. A Dialogue in Heaven between Father and Son

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

12. The Blind Prophet
00:47:25
YaleCourses
23 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This lecture focuses on the invocation to light at the beginning of Book Three of Paradise Lost. Milton's factual and figurative understanding of his blindness is traced through his letters, Sonnet XXII, and the later epic Samson Agonistes. Particular emphasis is placed on the transformation of blindness in the corpus from a spiritual punishment to a poetic gift. The implications of biographical interpretations of literature are also touched upon.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Milton's Blindness
04:47 - Chapter 2. How Milton and His Contemporaries Interpreted His Blindness
17:35 - Chapter 3. Light and the Creation Account: Comparing Milton and The Book of Genesis
39:09 - Chapter 4. Blindness Explored in Samson Agonistes

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

11. The Miltonic Smile
00:45:40
YaleCourses
19 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

Milton's characteristic use of simile is explored in Books One and Two of Paradise Lost. Particular attention is paid to how Milton's similes work to support, undermine, and complicate both the depiction of Satan and the broader thematic concerns of the poem, such as the ideas of free will and divine providence. The critical perspectives of Geoffrey Hartman and Stanley Fish are incorporated into an analysis of Satan's shield and spear and the simile of the leaves.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Similes in "Paradise Lost"
03:36 - Chapter 2. Similes in "Paradise Lost": Satan's Shield Compared to the Moon
17:05 - Chapter 3. Similes in "Paradise Lost": Satan's Spear Compared to the Mast of a Ship
22:38 - Chapter 4. Similes in "Paradise Lost": Simile of the Leaves
34:18 - Chapter 5. Hartman and Fish: Theories of Similes in "Paradise Lost"
40:34 - Chapter 6. Similes in "Paradise Lost": Simile of the Belated Peasant

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

10. God and Mammon: The Wealth of Literary Memory
00:50:38
YaleCourses
17 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This second lecture on Paradise Lost looks at hell and its inhabitants, as depicted in Books I and II. Milton's struggle both to match and outdo his literary predecessors is examined by way of allusions to the works of Homer and Edmund Spenser, particularly the cave of Mammon episode in Book Two of The Faerie Queene. The presence of classical mythological figures, such as Medusa and Mulciber, in the Christian hell of Paradise Lost is pondered, along with early distinctions in the poem, frequently blurred, between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, and heaven and hell.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Was Memory the Source of Milton's Poetic Inspiration?
04:03 - Chapter 2. Milton Defends the Divine Authority behind his Poem
08:02 - Chapter 3. "Paradise Lost": A Literary Fantasy of Forgetfulness
16:22 - Chapter 4. The Cave of Mammon and the Theme of Temptation
24:36 - Chapter 5. Analyzing "Paradise Lost"

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

9. Paradise Lost, Book I
00:51:20
YaleCourses
10 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

The invocation to Paradise Lost is read and analyzed. Milton's tenure as Latin Secretary under the Puritan government, his subsequent imprisonment upon the restoration of the monarchy, and his blindness are all briefly discussed. The poet's subsequent choice of a religious subject, rather than a nationalist one, for his epic is considered in light of the failure of the Puritan regime. His radical poetics, including his stance against rhyme and his unique use of enjambment and double syntax, is closely examined. Elements of the radical philosophy of monism, present in his depiction of angelic bodies, are identified and discussed at length.

00:00 - Chapter 1. "Paradise Lost": The Fall of Adam, Eve and the Rebel Angels
08:56 - Chapter 2. "Paradise Lost": A Powerful Defense against Lateness
13:44 - Chapter 3. "First": A Strategy of Retrospective Anticipation
23:14 - Chapter 4. "Paradise Lost": Radical Theology
28:25 - Chapter 5. "Paradise Lost": Thoughts Unconstrained by Grammar

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

8. Areopagitica
00:46:36
YaleCourses
11 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

Milton's political tract Areopagitica is discussed at length. The author's complicated take on state censorship and licensing, both practiced by the English government with respect to printed materials at the time, is examined. His eclectic use of pagan mythology, Christian scripture, and the metaphors of eating and digestion in defense of his position are probed. Lastly, Milton's insistence that moral truths must be examined and tested in order for goodness to be known is explored as an early manifestation of the rhetoric that will be used to depict the Fall in Paradise Lost.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Areopagitica and the English Revolution
05:49 - Chapter 2. Parliamentary Factions During the English Revolution
10:28 - Chapter 3. "Areopagitica": Freedom of the Press, Censorship and Licensing
24:35 - Chapter 4. Milton's Narrative of the History of Truth

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

7. Lycidas (cont.)
00:52:37
YaleCourses
13 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

In this second lecture on "Lycidas," moments of intrusion and revelation are closely examined. Saint Peter's protracted sermon is connected with the wider context of Puritan practices and controversies. The poem's tendency to suggest pairs and substitutions is duly noted. Finally, its conclusion is read as a triumphant moment in the young Milton's poetry, at which point he parts with the claims of ill-preparedness and little experience that dominated the early poems and assumes instead a prophetic voice for himself akin to Isaiah's.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Analyzing the Beginning of "Lycidas"
03:11 - Chapter 2. The Pastoral Framework of "Lycidas"
14:00 - Chapter 3. Milton: "The Reason of Church Government"
19:36 - Chapter 4. The Dramatic Structure of "Lycidas": A Succession of Four Mourners
48:50 - Chapter 5. Milton: The Prophetic Poet?

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

6. Lycidas
00:51:52
YaleCourses
13 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

Milton's poem "Lycidas" is discussed as an example of pastoral elegy and one of Milton's first forays into theodicy. The poetic speaker's preoccupation with questions of immortality and reward, especially for poets and virgins, is probed. The Christian elements of the poem's dilemma are addressed, while the solution to the speaker's crisis is characterized as erotic and oddly paganistic, pointing towards the heterodox nature of much of Milton's thinking.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Revisiting Comus
07:04 - Chapter 2. "Lycidas": An Elegy
26:44 - Chapter 3. A Review of the Great Poet Orpheus
33:27 - Chapter 4. "Lycidas" and Milton's Letter to a Friend

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

5. Poetry and Marriage
00:47:00
YaleCourses
16 Views · 5 years ago

Milton (ENGL 220)

This second lecture on Milton's masque probes its complex depictions of virginity and chastity. The version of the masque performed in 1634 is compared with the published version of 1637, with particular emphasis on a monologue on the vanquishing powers of virginity that is created for the latter. The poet's commonplace book, specifically his notes on the self-mutilation of the medieval nuns of Coldingham, is linked to images of the body in the masque. Milton's gradual revision of his initial position favoring life-long virginity is described in detail.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Milton on Virginity, Chastity and the Threat of Rape
11:14 - Chapter 2. A Note on Chastity
16:56 - Chapter 3. Comus and the Lady: The Tension between Virginity and Chastity

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.

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