Delirious Milton: The Fate of the Poet in Modernity The Fate of the Poet in Modernity

Composed 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. "Composed 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."-- Provided by publisher Annotation Composed 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

reading Gordon Teskey's delirious Milton Was One Of The Most Pleasurable Experiences Of My Professional Life. Teskey Sets Out To Explain Milton's Peculiar Position In Literary History, How Milton's Work Encyclopedizes Past Epic And The History Of Literature Up To His Pivotal Seventeenth-century Moment, But Also, At The Same Time, How It Changes The Direction Of Literature Toward 'modernity.' Maureen Quilligan, Author Of incest And Agency In Elizabeth's England

william Poole - London Review Of Books

[teskey's] Book Is An Interesting Reaffirmation In Today's Often Contrary Academic Climate Of A Poetic Approach To Milton, Swiping At Those Who Would Specialize Milton Studies Into Obscurity. He Is Refreshingly Suspicious Of Narrowly Historicist Or Theological Readings And Even Calls Milton's Poetry 'shamanistic,' Which Will Have Certain Miltonists Choking On Their Historicist Porridge. Perhaps We Need To Be Told This Kind Of Thing, And Teskey's Deep Seriousness And Stylistic Verve Is Attractive.

1. Artificial Paradises -- 2. Milton's Halo -- 3. Milton And Modernity -- 4. Why, This Is Chaos, Nor Am I Out Of It -- 5. God's Body : Concept And Metaphor -- 6. A Bleeding Rib : Milton And Classical Culture -- 7. Milton's Choice Of Subject -- 8. Revolution In Paradise Regained -- 9. Samson And The Heap Of The Dead. Gordon Teskey. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 203-210) And Index. Acknowledgments Contents Introduction 1. Artificial Paradises 2. Milton’s Halo 3. Milton and Modernity 4. Why, This Is Chaos, Nor Am I Out of It 5. God’s Body: Concept and Metaphor 6. A Bleeding Rib: Milton and Classical Culture 7. Milton’s Choice of Subject 8. Revolution in Paradise Regained 9. Samson and the Heap of the Dead Notes Index Teskey argues 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. Gordon Teskey concludes that the modern artist, far from being characterised 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