Pleasure Regained: Having Fun with Milton (RSA2026)
As readers of Milton know, Milton’s writings are often humorous, titillating, outrageous – extra in today’s colloquial parlance. Of course, they are also challenging, but this too can be pleasurable. Studying Milton involves, simply put, serious fun. How might we rethink our affective approaches to Milton’s poetry and prose to spotlight not only their difficulty but also their recreation? What is at stake for Milton and for us in the pleasures derived from, for example, an over-the-top invective or a sarcastic God? What are sustaining and enlivening potentials in critical and creative practices, such as speculation, auto-criticism, and parody? And how might we mobilize these potentials in our writing and teaching to engage new audiences?
