John Milton: Language, Gender, Power

by Catherine Belsey, Terry Eagleton (Editor)

The Milton of the critics is either denounced as pompous or admired for his grand style. The Milton of the scholars is weighed down with classical learning and Protestant theology. For the student, in consequence, Milton is a figure certainly respected, even feared - but largely unread. This book represents a Milton that challenges rather than daunts the reader. This is the Milton whose writing is a product of one of the most turbulent eras of English history, the period of the Revolution, the Commonwealth and the Restoration. In Catherine Belsey's analysis, Milton's is, in consequence, a turbulent writing, fully engaged with questions of politics, gender and language. In all these spheres, Milton's poetry and prose constitute an unresolved confrontation with difference. Produced on the threshold of the modern world, the texts foreshadow issues which are fiercely contested again today. Power is seen to be dangerous and unstable, patriachy precarious, masculinity vulnerable and the language ultimately beyond the control of the impulse to master it.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Catherine Belsey is currently Research Professor at Swansea University and formerly Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University. Best known for her pioneering book, Critical Practice (Methuen, 1980), Catherine Belsey has an international reputation as a deft and sophisticated critical theorist and subtle and eloquent critic of literature, particularly of Renaissance texts. Her main area of work is on the implications of poststructuralist theory for aspects of cultural history and criticism. Her present project is ’Culture and the Real’, a consideration of the limitations of contemporary constructivism in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Professor Belsey chairs the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, a research forum for discussion and debate on current views of the relation between human beings and culture.

Reviews

[Meghan]

I forgot to log this book earlier, I used it for some extra paper research because I was grasping at straws for an additional argument. it was alright I guess, 2.5/5