Threshold Poetics: Milton and Intersubjectivity'Threshold Poetics: Milton and Intersubjectivity' is a study of the challenge intersubjective experience poses to doctrinal formulations of difference. Focusing on 'Paradise Lost' and 'Samson Agonistes' and using feminist and relational psychoanalytic theory, the project examines representations of looking, working, eating, conversing, and touching, to argue that encounters between selves in 'threshold space' dismantle the binary oppositions that support categorical thinking. A key term throughout the study is recognition, defined as the capacity to tolerate both sameness and difference between separate selves. Recognition of likeness-in-difference thus undermines the exclusionary logic of patriarchal and poitical hierarchies. Both Eve and Dalila demonstrate the ability to respect the borders of the other while seeking out similarity, but where 'Paradise Lost' depicts the eventual achievements of intersubjective understanding between Adam and Eve after the fall, 'Samson Agonistes' records its failure when Samson, maintaining the boundaries of difference, refuses Dalila's effort to make contact. |
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Page 14
... poetic universe that . . . subverts all claims to dog- matic certitude ... [ T ] he possibilities are completely open . " What I am proposing is that Milton's work avoids succumbing to conceptual antitheses , and thus articulates the ...
... poetic universe that . . . subverts all claims to dog- matic certitude ... [ T ] he possibilities are completely open . " What I am proposing is that Milton's work avoids succumbing to conceptual antitheses , and thus articulates the ...
Page 15
... poem , Eve is also put to sleep , this time while Adam gains " foresight " ( 11.368 ) from the angel Michael . A standard set of associ- ations , rooted in hierarchical duality , connects Eve to the body , the " flesh " ( 8.468 ) from ...
... poem , Eve is also put to sleep , this time while Adam gains " foresight " ( 11.368 ) from the angel Michael . A standard set of associ- ations , rooted in hierarchical duality , connects Eve to the body , the " flesh " ( 8.468 ) from ...
Page 16
... poems , appears to resist , against all expecta- tion , the very idea of God . In his recent biography of Milton , John Shawcross makes the seemingly unnecessary comment that " Milton believed in God . " One might infer from such a ...
... poems , appears to resist , against all expecta- tion , the very idea of God . In his recent biography of Milton , John Shawcross makes the seemingly unnecessary comment that " Milton believed in God . " One might infer from such a ...
Page 18
... poems of his youth , " L'Al- legro " and " II Penseroso , " with their stylized taking - on of different temperaments , suggest a mind actively observing itself , working out a sense of identity . The letters to and finally the elegy ...
... poems of his youth , " L'Al- legro " and " II Penseroso , " with their stylized taking - on of different temperaments , suggest a mind actively observing itself , working out a sense of identity . The letters to and finally the elegy ...
Page 31
... poem presents Dalila — she whose own multiply different corporeal- ity serves to link , rather than separate her from Samson — as unex- pectedly capable of breaking through the boundaries of prejudice that hold the other characters in ...
... poem presents Dalila — she whose own multiply different corporeal- ity serves to link , rather than separate her from Samson — as unex- pectedly capable of breaking through the boundaries of prejudice that hold the other characters in ...
Contents
33 | |
Labor Pains Creation and Work in the Garden | 68 |
No ingrateful food Eating as Interconnection | 106 |
Getting the Last Word The Verbal Touching of Talk | 139 |
Dalilas Touch Disability and Recognition in Samson Agonistes | 175 |
Epilogue | 208 |
Notes | 213 |
Bibliography | 241 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam and Eve Adam's ambiguity Androgyny angels argues articulates birth blindness body boundaries context creation creatures cultural D. W. Winnicott Dalila David Hillman deaf describes desire difference disabled doctrine earth eating the apple enjambment epic Eve's exchange of looks experience fantasy female Feminism fruit garden gaze gender God's heaven hierarchy human Ibid identity interaction intersubjective Jessica Benjamin John Guillory John Milton Kerrigan Knoppers language Linda Gregerson Love Objects male McColley Michael Milton Quarterly Milton Studies Milton's Eve mother mutual narrative natural world notion object relations theory Paradise Lost patriarchal physical Pittsburgh Press poem poem's poetic Poetry political pool psychoanalytic radical Raphael reading recognition relation relationship Renaissance Ruins of Allegory Rumrich Sacred Complex Samson Agonistes scene selfhood sense separate sexual simply speech suggests thee theory things thou threshold space tion touch turn University of Pittsburgh voice Winnicott Wittreich womb words writes York
Popular passages
Page 128 - What choice to choose for delicacy best, What order so contrived as not to mix Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change: Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields In India East or West, or middle shore In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where...
Page 158 - Yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.
Page 100 - Yon flowery arbours, yonder alleys green, Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, That mock our scant manuring, and require More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth: Those blossoms also and those dropping gums, That lie bestrewn unsightly and unsmooth, Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease: Meanwhile, as nature wills, night bids us rest.
Page 95 - Sole partner, and sole part, of all these joys, Dearer thyself than all ; needs must the Power That made us, and for us this ample world, Be infinitely good, and of his good As liberal and free as infinite; That rais'd us from the dust, and plac'd us here In all this happiness...
Page 41 - What thou seest, What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself, With thee it came and goes : but follow me, And I will bring thee where no shadow stays Thy coming, and thy soft embraces ; he Whose image thou art, him thou shalt enjoy Inseparably thine ; to him shalt bear Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called Mother of human race.
Page 46 - Return, fair Eve; Whom fliest thou ? Whom thou fliest, of him thou art, His flesh, his bone, to give thee being I lent Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart, Substantial life, to have thee by my side Henceforth an individual solace dear: Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half.
Page 191 - I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken In what I thought would have succeeded best. Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson, Afford me place to show what...
Page 77 - Be gathered now, ye waters under Heaven, Into one place, and let dry land appear!' Immediately the mountains huge appear Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds ; their tops...
Page 43 - Mother of human race.' What could I do, But follow straight, invisibly thus led? Till I espied thee, fair, indeed, and tall, Under a platan; yet methought less fair, Less winning soft, less amiably mild, Than that smooth watery image.