Milton and Questions of History: Essays by Canadians Past and Present

Milton and Questions of History considers the contribution of several classic studies of Milton written by Canadians in the twentieth century. It contemplates whether these might be termed a coherent 'school' of Milton studies in Canada and it explores how these concerns might intervene in current critical and scholarly debates on Milton and, more broadly, on historicist criticism in its relationship to renewed interest in literary form. The volume opens with a selection of seminal articles by noted scholars including Northrop Frye, Hugh McCallum, Douglas Bush, Ernest Sirluck, and A.S.P. Woodhouse. Subsequent essays engage and contextualize these works while incorporating fresh intellectual concerns. The Introduction and Afterword frame the contents so that they constitute a dialogue between past and present critical studies of Milton by Canadian scholars.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, by Feisal G. Mohamed and Mary Nyquist i) Reprints Douglas Bush, ‘The Modern Reaction to Milton’ A.S.P. Woodhouse, from Introduction to Puritanism and Liberty Northrop Frye, ‘Literature as Context: Milton’s Lycidas’ Hugh MacCallum, ‘Milton and Figurative Interpretation of the Bible’ Balachandra Rajan, ‘Paradise Lost’ Ernest Sirluck, ‘Areopagitica and a Forgotten Licensing Controversy’ Arthur Barker, ‘ “... And on his Crest Sat Horror”: Eighteenth-Century Interpretations of Milton’s Sublimity and his Satan’ ii) Reflection Hugh MacCallum, ‘The Study of Milton at the University of Toronto in the Mid-Twentieth Century’ iii) New Articles John Leonard, ‘Douglas Bush in His Time and Ours’ Elizabeth Sauer, ‘Radical Company: Milton, the Nostalgia of (Post-)War Criticism, and the Case of A.S.P. Woodhouse’s Puritanism and Liberty’ Nicholas von Maltzahn, ‘Milton and the Deist Prelude to Liberalism’ Annabel Patterson, ‘Milton as Political Prophet: The Readie and Easie Way’ Peter C. Herman, ‘Northrop Frye, Lycidas and the “Intense Inane” of History’ Feisal G. Mohamed, ‘Fielding, Jonson, and the Critique of High Mimesis in Paradise Lost’ Elizabeth Hodgson, ‘Milton Takes the Veil’ Phillip J. Donnelly, ‘Historical Appearance in Areopagitica’ Muhammad Sid-Ahmad, ‘Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy and Milton’s Adam’ Balachandra Rajan, ‘Ludlow Re-Visited: Milton and Eco-Justice’ Afterword, by Paul Stevens Contributors Phillip J. Donnelly Baylor University Peter C. Herman San Diego State University Elizabeth Hodgson University of British Columbia John Leonard University of Western Ontario Annabel Patterson Yale University Elizabeth Sauer Brock University Muhammad Sid-Ahmad University of Toronto Paul Stevens University of Toronto Nicholas von Maltzahn University of Ottawa

About the Author :
Feisal G. Mohamed is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois. Mary Nyquist is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto.

Review :
‘This excellent collection illuminates the role of Milton studies in establishing in Canada an intellectual and cultural foundation upon which further achievements of many kinds could be built, and, by looking back, points ahead.’ - Kenneth J. E. Graham (Modern Philology vol 112:01:2014) ‘Feisal Mohamed & Mary Nyquist have assembled a remarkable collection of eighteen essays and an afterword from Canadian Miltonists past and present a juxtaposition that raises vital questions about critical historiography.’ - Thomas Fulton (Renaissance Quarterly vol 68:01:2015)