Puritan Legacies: Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition, 1630-1890

Puritan Legacies: Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition, 1630-1890
ISBN-10
0801420164
ISBN-13
9780801420160
Category
Literary Criticism / General
Pages
294
Language
English
Published
1987
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Author
Keith W. F. Stavely

Description

Using "Paradise Lost" as a touchstone first to the English Revolution and second to the way that revolution was transferred to America, Stavely convincingly argues that the "structure of feeling" embodied in the poem persists through three centuries ofAmerican culture. His discussion of Puritan radicalism in New England and, more importantly, his detailed case studies of Marlborough and Westborough, Massachusetts, which he investigates and understands by constant reference to Milton's great poem, display his strong gifts as both literary critic and intellectual historian. Puritan Legacies is a challenging example of the "New Historicism" we have so long needed.

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