Literature and Dissent in Milton's England

by Sharon Achinstein

Overview

The England of John Milton's great poems was the England of Dissenters, those who refused to join the state church after the return of monarchy in 1660 and were seen as dangerous outcasts and rebels. Sharon Achinstein reveals how a literary tradition of dissent was produced by those who suffered political defeat and religious exclusion in Restoration England. Disclosing a range of writing that has been largely and unjustly neglected, this important study is of interest to Milton scholars and seventeenth-century literary and religious historians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521050708
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/14/2008
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Sharon Achinstein is Lecturer in English at Oxford University and a Fellow of St Edmund Hall, and has previously taught at the University of Maryland and Northwestern University. She is the author of Milton and the Revolutionary Reader (1994), which won the Milton Society of America's Hanford Prize, and edited Literature, Gender and the English Revolution (1994).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Reading dissent; 2. Memory; 3. Prison; 4. Violence; 5. Milton; 6. Enthusiasm; 7. Poetics; 8. Hymn; Coda: enlightenment; Appendix: Milton's burial place; Notes; Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...brilliant...a book with big ideas..." CLIO, Melinda S. Zook

"Achinstein's readings of dissenting cultures, genres, and texts are generous and nuanced... Her readings of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes combine a confident handling of biography, social history, and religious polemics with careful thematic and formal analysis... reminds us of the importance of seeing this literary culture whole." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Offers a new and more nuanced and complicated [...] account of the value of dissenting literature." H-ALBION

"Sharon Achinstein's Literature and Dissent in Milton's England is a rich and eloquent book." SEL Studies in English Literature, Achsah Guibbory, Recent Studies in the English Renaissance

"This book brilliantly participates in the ongoing commentary on Dissent in seventeenth-century England." Journal of Religion

"This compelling study of the undervalued genres of dissent, especially hymns and funerals, is essential reading for all scholars of seventeenth-century England." - Rachel Warburton, Lakehead University

Editorial Reviews

"...brilliant...a book with big ideas..." CLIO, Melinda S. Zook

"Achinstein's readings of dissenting cultures, genres, and texts are generous and nuanced... Her readings of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes combine a confident handling of biography, social history, and religious polemics with careful thematic and formal analysis... reminds us of the importance of seeing this literary culture whole." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Offers a new and more nuanced and complicated [...] account of the value of dissenting literature." H-ALBION

"Sharon Achinstein's Literature and Dissent in Milton's England is a rich and eloquent book." SEL Studies in English Literature, Achsah Guibbory, Recent Studies in the English Renaissance

"This book brilliantly participates in the ongoing commentary on Dissent in seventeenth-century England." Journal of Religion

"This compelling study of the undervalued genres of dissent, especially hymns and funerals, is essential reading for all scholars of seventeenth-century England." - Rachel Warburton, Lakehead University

From the Publisher