Hawkins, ZV;
(2014)
Home in the prose and poetry of John Milton.
Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This thesis will explore Milton’s writing in relation to the idea of home as a biographical and cultural influence. As such, it will primarily be concerned with his experiences of home, in as much as we can reconstruct them from his writing and early biographies, and with the contemporary socio-religious ideologies pertaining to homes and houses that may have influenced him. The primary aims of this thesis are: first, to add to knowledge of the poet’s life by bringing recent sociological and historical research on the material and social culture of the home in the seventeenth century to bear on our existing knowledge of Milton’s life; and secondly, to add to an understanding of his writing by using these conclusions alongside close readings and literary analysis to gain new insights into his poetry and prose. Then, as now, an individual’s experiences and expectations of home would have varied throughout his life and this study is therefore arranged broadly chronologically, and tracks the changes and continuities in Milton’s approach to the subject. In particular, it will explore how the young Milton responded to the relationship between patriarchalism, politics and house-holding, and the pressures this relationship placed on early-modern men. It will also examine how he was able to exploit this social ideology in his political prose, how this interacted with the wider political discussion of the civil war and its consequences, and how the use of the idea of home within these discussions influenced broader thinking on issues such as the relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’ affairs. Finally, this study will explore the ways in which the home is discussed in Milton’s post-Restoration writing, and relate this to the question of whether he resorted to intellectual quietism in political defeat.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Home in the prose and poetry of John Milton |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Permission for digitisation not received. |
| Keywords: | John Milton, Home, Domesticity, Early-modern prose, Early-modern poetry, Seventeenth century, Antiprelatical tracts, Paradise lost, Paradise regained, Comus, Samson agonistes |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of English Lang and Literature |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1420213 |
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