[Milton-L] Desire

[lauriejohnson87 at bellsouth.net]

Hi Josh,

I would get on the internet and go through your school's databases. The Milton Quarterly is a journal filled with excellent, scholarly, peer reviewed articles. Most of its articles can be found through various databases, Project Muse, JSTOR, Ebsco, etc. The Cambridge Companion to Milton edited by Dennis Danielson is good jumping off place, not only for the articles but also the articles have fairly comprehensive bibliographies. An Annotated Critical bibliography of John Milton edited by C.A Patrides is another. Go to the library and and look at the books around the above mentioned books and see what you find. Sometimes, you stumble across the perfect book while looking for soomething entirely different, but you must go there and look. Also, reading reviews on recently published books in MQ would also be helpful. Finally, the below website has some excellent links: 

 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/links/index.shtml

Don't worry about terms like "discursive" (I mean, you should know what the word means, but don't worry about its theoretical implications at this point) and your "fallen state." Search for as many articles as you can that discuss rhetoric, that discuss in particular uses of words "desire" or desiring in Paradise Lost as well as uses of words that have the same connotation as desire in PL, go to the OED and learn the various uses and meanings of the word "desire," and I think you will find so much information out there that your head will wrap around a variety of approaches to your question, which is really is INFINITELY more satisfying than someone leading you in any particular direction. With regard to research, yes, it definitely helps to have knowledge of the resources, but the fun of it is going through what's been written and finding your own trajectory in order to make your own argument. 

If you're as enthusiastic as you sound, I think you will find the experience will bear out my suggestion. I've always found that doing research leads to more exciting threads that I had not initially considered. 

Best of Luck,

Laurie Johnson 
Assistant Professor
Georgia Military College
 



------------- Original message from "Josh Fischer" <josh at louisvillegolf.com>: -------------- 


> Hello all, 
> 
> I am a senior English major at the University of Louisville (3.8 gpa) with 
> an increasing interest in Milton and "Paradise Lost." I am taking a class on 
> Mr. Milton this semester taught by Dr. Dale Billingsley, and it has been 
> dynamic. With my previous exploration of "Frankensten" and Mary Shelley, 
> coupled with my reading of several essays where Wendell Berry utilizes 
> Milton's masterpiece to help his ideas, the poem has engaged me in a way 
> that few works have. I am beginning to formulate ideas on a paper and have 
> the following questions: 
> 
> How does "desire" manifest itself in the poem? (As I read the poem for the 
> first time this summer, and now again with the class, desire, in all its 
> contexts, seems to echo throughout the poem - specifically as it is 
> synonomous with ambition and wanting.) 
> 
> Also, in a second reading I am also "fallen" in that I know the trajectory 
> of the narrative and sit in the God-spot, or now I have knowledge, albeit 
> obtained discursively versus inuitievely. Does this make any sense? It was 
> suggested to me and I haven't been able to wrap my mind around it. 
> 
> I am not looking for this list to do my work for me, but if anyone has any 
> directions they can point me in, it would be most appreciated. I have 
> enjoyed the postings on this list for several weeks and thought I would be 
> remiss if I didn't post a query. 
> 
> Respectfully and sincerely, 
> 
> Joshua Fischer 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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