Delirious Milton: The Fate of the Poet in ModernityComposed after the collapse of his political hopes, Milton's great poems Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes are an effort to understand what it means to be a poet on the threshold of a post-theological world. The argument of Delirious Milton, inspired in part by the architectural theorist Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York, is that Milton's creative power is drawn from a rift at the center of his consciousness over the question of creation itself. This rift forces the poet to oscillate deliriously between two incompatible perspectives, at once affirming and denying the presence of spirit in what he creates. From one perspective the act of creation is centered in God and the purpose of art is to imitate and praise the Creator. From the other perspective the act of creation is centered in the human, in the built environment of the modern world. The oscillation itself, continually affirming and negating the presence of spirit, of a force beyond the human, is what Gordon Teskey means by delirium. He concludes that the modern artist, far from being characterized by what Benjamin (after Baudelaire) called "loss of the aura," is invested, as never before, with a shamanistic spiritual power that is mediated through art. |
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... Creation and human creativity , Gordon Teskey has brought Milton into modernity . Whether creative process- es are closer to hallucinations or delirium , they are informed throughout by a spirituality that defies dogma . This book is an ...
... Creation and human creativity , Gordon Teskey has brought Milton into modernity . Whether creative process- es are closer to hallucinations or delirium , they are informed throughout by a spirituality that defies dogma . This book is an ...
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... In his eyes , the created universe is nothing more than a little corner of chaos that happened to be arranged and is ready at any moment to fall back into disorder . Lamartine Introduction MILTON ILTON IS ONE of four English poets -
... In his eyes , the created universe is nothing more than a little corner of chaos that happened to be arranged and is ready at any moment to fall back into disorder . Lamartine Introduction MILTON ILTON IS ONE of four English poets -
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... is the detached representation of what already is , rather than a part of what already is . In contrast , " poetry , " which means " production " or , as we would now say , " creation , " is turned toward the 1 Introduction.
... is the detached representation of what already is , rather than a part of what already is . In contrast , " poetry , " which means " production " or , as we would now say , " creation , " is turned toward the 1 Introduction.
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... Creation— “ Creation , ” as I shall put it when the word is used in this sense , with a capital C. But it is also to look for- ward in time , into the temporal scene of the emergence of everything human that has yet to be made ...
... Creation— “ Creation , ” as I shall put it when the word is used in this sense , with a capital C. But it is also to look for- ward in time , into the temporal scene of the emergence of everything human that has yet to be made ...
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... the first in- stance , simply the excitement of creating , which is performed by the artist in the work itself and entered into vicariously by us . But it is also , especially for poets such as Jorie Graham in her recent Introduction 3.
... the first in- stance , simply the excitement of creating , which is performed by the artist in the work itself and entered into vicariously by us . But it is also , especially for poets such as Jorie Graham in her recent Introduction 3.
Contents
Artificial Paradises | 10 |
Miltons Halo | 20 |
Milton and Modernity | 45 |
Why This Is Chaos Nor Am I Out of It | 65 |
Gods Body CONCEPT AND METAPHOR | 86 |
A Bleeding Rib MILTON AND CLASSICAL CULTURE | 107 |
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abyss Adam alienated Anaximander Aristotle artifact artist body called chaos choice choose Christian classical culture concept created createdness creative Creator critical dead delirium divine Creation earth epic everything Faerie Queene fall Father foreskins forget God's Greek hallucination heap heaven Hebrews hell heroic Homer human imagine interpretation Jesus John Milton Jorie Graham kings literary material matter meaning metaphor metaphysical metonymical Milton modern modernist monist narrative nature necessity and chance original Paradise Lost Paradise Regained perhaps Philistines phrase physical pinnacle poem poet poet's poetic poetry political present problem question reading rebel angels refer Rem Koolhaas Renaissance Samson Agonistes Satan says scene seems sense space speak Spenser spirit stand Stanley Fish structure substance Tasso temptation tempting thee theology theory things thou thought tion Torquato Tasso tradition truth University Press verse vision voice wilderness word writing