Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
John Milton-Pa

John Milton-Pa

Shawcross, John T.

Paperback

Series: Studies in the English Renaissance

Literary CriticismPoetry Criticism

ISBN10: 0813190215
ISBN13: 9780813190211
Publisher: Univ Pr Of Kentucky
Published: Oct 19 2001
Pages: 368
Weight: 1.37
Height: 0.96 Width: 6.64 Depth: 9.24
Language: English

The facts of John Milton's life are well documented, but what of the person Milton--the man whose poetic and prose works have been deeply influential and are still the subject of opposing readings? John Shawcross's different biography depicts the man against a psychological backdrop that brings into relief who he was--in his works and from his works.

While the theories of Freud, Lacan, Kohut, and others underlie this pursuit of Milton's self, Jung and some of his followers provide the basic understanding by which Shawcross places Milton in the panorama of history. His explorations of the psychological underpinnings of Milton's decision to become a poet, of the homoerotic dimensions of his personality, and of his relationships with father and mother demonstrate the extent to which psychobiography proves itself invaluable as a means to appreciate this complex writer and his complex writings.

This biography combines the traditional chronological narrative with a technique akin to that of fiction, a mixture of times and a triggering of remembrances from various time frames without time differentiations. Such an approach offers a view of Milton not only in being but in process of being.

Shawcross's examination of two current concerns, gender attitudes and political ideologies, ranges Milton's work against the self he exhibits. Specialists and nonspecialists alike will find in this magisterial biography a wealth of new insight into one of the greatest of English poets.

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