Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, English Poetry - 17th Century - Literary Criticism, Feminist Literary Criticism, English Fiction & Prose Literature - 16th-17th Century - Literary Criticism, Sex Role & Literature, Feminism & Literature

Milton and Gender

Name: Milton and Gender
Author: Catherine Gimelli Martin
ISBN: 9780521123709

by Catherine Gimelli Martin

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Overview

Milton's contempt for women has been accepted since Samuel Johnson's famous Life of the poet. Subsequent critics have long debated whether Milton's writings were anti- or pro-feminine, a problem further complicated by his advocacy of "divorce on demand" for men. Milton and Gender re-evaluates these claims of Milton as antifeminist, pointing out that he was not seen that way by contemporaries, but espoused startlingly modern ideas of marriage and the relations between the sexes. The first two sections of specially commissioned essays in this volume investigate the representations of gender and sexuality in Milton's prose and verse. In the final section, the responses of female readers ranging from George Eliot and Virginia Woolf to lesserknown artists and revolutionaries are brought to bear on Milton's afterlife and reputation. Together, these essays provide a thoroughly new perspective on the contested issues of femininity and masculinity, marriage and divorce in Milton's work.