Kevin J. Donovan - Böcker

Bringing together eight original essays from leading and emerging Miltonists, this volume explores a second wave of critical thought about Milton’s monist materialism, the view that all existence arises from a single substance or reality. Contributors examine sensory matters of fragrance and sound, the literary politics of walking and of sexual reproduction, the ontology of embodiment as human beings and angels, and the appropriation of Milton’s materialism by both early Mormons in the nineteenth century and fringe figures such as gun enthusiasts in the twentieth. In so doing, they demonstrate the ongoing relevance of Milton’s writings in the history of views of embodiment and materialist thought.

This volume documents the reception and interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear by critics, editors and general readers from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. Following an introduction which provides an historical account of the play’s critical reception from the earliest times to the present day, the volume presents a selection of original documents, together with contextual head notes and biographical sketches of the authors and a rationale for their selection, as well as a list of suggested further reading.The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. Thus the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century.

Followingthe editors’ introduction to the collection, the essays in Scholarly Milton examine thenature of Milton’s own formidable scholarship and its implications for hisprose and poetry–“scholarly Milton” the writer–as well as subsequent scholars’historical and theoretical framing of Milton studies as an object of scholarlyattention–“scholarly Milton” as at first an emergent and later an establishedacademic discipline. The essays are particularly concerned with the topics ofthe ethical ends of learning, of Milton’s attention to the trivium within theRenaissance humanist educational system, and the development of scholarlycommentary on Milton’s writings. Originally selected from the best essayspresented at the 2015 Conference on John Milton in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, theessays have been considerably revised and expanded for publication.