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The Satanic 'or': Milton and Protestant Anti-Allegorism

Brljak, Vladimir

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Abstract

In an often quoted but imperfectly understood passage in John Milton’s Paradise Regain’d, Satan professes to doubt whether the kingdom portended for Christ is ‘Real or Allegoric’. This article takes this passage, the only instance of the term allegory in the whole of Milton’s poetry, as a starting point for a reconsideration of Milton’s attitude towards the complex and controversial theological, political, and aesthetic issues raised by this term in early modern Protestant culture. Specifically, the article examines the usage of the term in Milton’s early prose writings and its abandonment from 1645 onwards; Milton’s familiarity with the disputes surrounding Galatians 4:24, a biblical verse of central importance in early modern treatments of the subject; and an overlooked tradition in Protestant commentary according to which allegorical reading was introduced into Christianity by Satan, in order to obscure the true meaning of scripture. Having firmly aligned Milton with the anti-allegorical tendency in Protestant thought, the discussion returns to Paradise Regain’d to demonstrate how this anti-allegorism informs a number of key passages in the poem, and briefly discusses its broader implications for the ongoing debates about the representational mode of Milton’s biblical epics.

Citation

Brljak, V. (2015). The Satanic 'or': Milton and Protestant Anti-Allegorism. The Review of English Studies, 66(275), 403-422. https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgv011

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Mar 21, 2015
Publication Date Jun 30, 2015
Deposit Date Oct 12, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Review of English Studies
Print ISSN 0034-6551
Electronic ISSN 1471-6968
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 66
Issue 275
Pages 403-422
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgv011

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Copyright Statement
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in The Review of English Studies following peer review. The version of record Brljak, Vladimir (2015). The Satanic 'or': Milton and Protestant Anti-Allegorism. The Review of English Studies 66(275): 403-422 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgv011




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