Here are the the latest doings in the land of Miltoniana!
Upcoming MSA Events
Renaissance Society of America in gorgeous, historic San Juan
As a teaser for those of you who will be shortly packing bags shortly for Puerto Rico, Milton is well-represented on the annual program. It’s so heartening to see such a great variety of panels and papers:
- Milton and the Experience of Loss (MSA-sponsored)
- Milton after Political Theology (MSA-sponsored)
- New Perspectives on Milton’s Poetics (MSA-sponsored)
- Milton and Pleasure
- Milton and Human Faculties
- Margaret Cavendish, John Milton, and the Meeting of Opposites
- Miltonic Designs with and against Catholicism and Spain
2023 Annual Meeting
Mark your calendars! We will have our annual convivial convocation on Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, where we will hear from our featured poet and applaud our Honored Scholar and generally enjoy good cheer and good fellowship. Stay tuned for an email update with the program. In the meantime, here’s the link: https://swarthmore.zoom.us/j/7752868514.
And if you have 2022 publications to be featured in the program, don’t forget to email those asap to Eric Song.
Milton and Spenser @ Random
And here’s another reason to mark your calendars! Randomly generated stanzas from the Faerie Queene paired with sentences from Paradise Lost, and then dropped into randomly generated breakout rooms. The result? Intelligent, insightful, and imaginative close readings . . . and probably a high degree of hilarity. Come enjoy, and bring friends. Who knows, this might become a regular event.
- Monday, March 20 at 12pm eastern/5pm GMT
- Zoom registration required
Other News
Announcing the new Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies
On its website, the Milton Society of Georgia outlines its aims: “In a country where English is a second or third language, people are eager to learn the works of the greatest English writers. High on the list is John Milton (1608-1674), author of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and more in poetry and prose. The Milton Society of Georgia aims to bring together a community of scholars interested in the life and works of John Milton; encourage production of literary works associated with John Milton; issue publications about John Milton; hold meetings at which Milton’s works will be studied and discussed; and foster the development of interest in English language and literature.”
The society has recently published the fourth issue of the international, peer-reviewed Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies, including the first translation into Georgian of Milton’s “Of Education.”
British Milton Seminar
The British Milton Seminar will be convening online on March 16 (registration required for zoom links)
- 11am-13pm UK GMT
- Miklós Péti (Budapest), ‘Lukács and Milton’
- Warren Chernaik (King’s College London), ‘Service and Servitude in Milton and Marvell’
- 14pm-16pm UK GMT
- Hannah Crawforth (King’s College London), ‘Milton and Toussaint: Thinking with Tragedy in the English and Haitian Revolutions’
- Ned Allen (Cambridge), ‘Paradise Lost in the Radio Age’
In Memoriam
Our community has been lessened by the passing of Judith H. Anderson, scholar-teacher extraordinaire and Chancellor’s professor at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. Anderson was the author of over a dozen books on early modern authors and the recipient of nine national fellowships, and she was known for her generosity toward colleagues and students.
Unexpected Milton Sightings
Lorcán Mac Mathúna, a composer and singer from Ireland, has done a musical composition of Paradise Lost which premiered in Dublin in January 2023. The first song in the cycle, “Sing Heavenly Muse,” can be viewed on YouTube.