Milton’s Visual Imagination: Imagery in “Paradise Lost”
To tell the story of humankind’s Fall requires the description of much that has never been seen—from the war in Heaven, to life in Eden before the first sin. In this provocative and discerning study, Stephen B. Dobranski discovers new allusions and previously ignored contexts that show how Milton enriches his biblical source-text with acute and sometimes astonishing visual details. Dobranski contends that Milton’s imagery—traditionally disparaged by critics—advances the epic’s narrative while expressing the author’s heterodox beliefs. Bringing together Milton’s material philosophy with an analysis of both his poetic tradition and cultural circumstances, Milton’s Visual Imagination is a major contribution to our understanding of early modern visual culture as well as to Milton’s epic, the preeminent work of the English literary canon.
Praise for Milton’s Visual Imagination: Imagery in “Paradise Lost“:
“convincingly engages long-standing denials of the visual aspect of Milton’s imagery, and each chapter enriches the reader’s understanding of both the text and the cultural milieu that influenced Paradise Lost”
B. E. Brandt, Choice
“[T]here is much to admire in this book. It is full of vividly presented material, things that often cast direct or associative light on Paradise Lost. Dobranski always astutely positions his own claims in relation to those made by others, and even when he pushes his case to the limit he does so with circumspection and care. . . . [H]is careful scholarship and enormous range of cultural knowledge have . . . produced an extremely illuminating and thought-provoking book.”
Colin Burrow, Milton Quarterly
“Dobranski’s proofs are convincingly, vividly put forth.”
Roberta Klimt, Times Literary Supplement