Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
English
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Jeffrey Alan Miller
Committee Member
Adam Rzepka
Committee Member
Monika Elbert
Abstract
This essay explores, in sequence, the event of Eve’s dream, Raphael’s visit to Eden, and Satan’s temptation as presented in Milton’s Paradise Lost. To aid an interpretation of Raphael’s visit to Eden, in terms other than failure, is Edward Said’s seminal work, Orientalism. Said’s theoretical cruxes of “latent orientalism” and “narrative” propel an analytical reconfiguration of the events stated above. As Said’s claims work to question analyses of Raphael’s visit, present in scholarly discourse, Milton’s text works to reveal the analytical possibilities of Said’s work in ways that are otherwise absent from the discourse. By examining these moments in Milton’s text, Said’s claims also procure insightful dimensions and interpretations outside of their more theoretical and historical commonplace. Ultimately, Said’s main concern of the historical dynamics shaping the relationship between “east” and “West”, “Orient” and “Occident”, prove relevant to consideration of the dynamics of “earthly” and “heavenly”, God and man, in Milton’s epic poem.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Noury, Carolyn, "“‘Bold Words Vouched with a Deed so Bold’ : Latent Orientalism and Narrative in John Milton’s Paradise Lost”" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 210.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/210