Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Paradise Lost: Text and context
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 21681
Module Lead
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	BA English; BA English Major and Minor; BA English with Creative Writing; BA English and American Literature; BA English and other subject JH combinations. Optional, level H module.
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module enables students to focus in depth on Milton's 12-book epic poem, Paradise Lost, one of the most canonical works in English literature. Through close reading of 1-2 books per week, students will be invited to explore numerous aspects of Milton's poetic mythmaking, including his transformation of biblical and classical sources; the dramatisation of theological doctrine; allusion to the politics of the Civil Wars, Interregnum, and Restoration; and engagement with late-seventeenth-century philosophical debates over the nature of existence and the limits of human knowledge. Working outward from the text of the poem, students will be required to read widely in extracts from relevant contextual material. These will include classical and Renaissance epic poetry (e.g. Homer, Virgil, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser); and Milton's own prose tracts on matters of theology (De Doctrina Christiana), political and ethical principle (Areopagitica, Tenure of Kings and Magistrates), and gender relations (Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce). Three weeks will be devoted to considering, respectively, the `companion' poem to Paradise Lost, Milton's brief epic, Paradise Regained; contemporary responses to Paradise Lost (especially Dryden and Marvell); and the reception and critical history of the poem from 1700 to the present day. Throughout the module, students' analysis and evaluation of the poem will be informed by wide reading of significant recent critical studies, including Stanley Fish's reader-response theory, and the so-called `new' Milton criticism of Rumrich, Goldberg, Corns and others, which tends to focus on the poem's political radicalism, theological heterodoxy, and aesthetic innovation.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module the student should be able to: Demonstrate knowledge of the ways in which Milton adapted inherited genres for literary, political, and religious purposes. Contextualise the work within philosophical and cultural debates of the mid- to late-seventeenth century. Show understanding of the importance and implications of key critical debates (pertaining to the poem's composition, publication, and reception). Demonstrate close reading skills and the ability to articulate the relationship between texts and their historical contexts; and the relationship between modern readers and seventeenth-century literature.
Assessment	21681-01 : 4,000 Word Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	4,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List