The 2007 Conference
on John Milton
October 25-27, 2007
Sponsored by the English Department
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
All conference activities will be held at the Doubletree Hotel-Murfreesboro.
Schedule of Events
Thursday, October 25
Reception
Salons A-C
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Friday, October 26
Official Welcome and Plenary Address
Salons A-C
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Tom Strawman (Middle Tennessee)
Richard J. DuRocher (St. Olaf)
“’Tears such as Angels weep’: Passion and Allusion in Paradise Lost”
Coffee Break
10:00-10:15 a.m
Paradise Lost I
Salon A
10:15-11:30 a.m.
Mary Fenton (Western Carolina), Chair
David Boocker (Western Illinois)
“’Something of doubt remains’: Milton and Cosmology”
Matthew Valdiviez (Yale)
“Eve’s Image: Milton and the Phenomenology of the Idol”
Elisabeth Liebert (Louisiana State)
“’Domestick Adam’: Conduct Literature and the Separation Debate”
Milton and the Classics
Salon B
10:15-11:30 a.m.
Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee), Chair
Sara Van der Laan (Yale)
“Waking Leucothea: An Unexplored Homeric Allusion in Paradise Lost 11”
Maggie Kilgour (McGill)
“Ovidian Invidia: Milton and Classical Emulation”
David Bradshaw (Warren Wilson)
“Self-sacrifice and Heroic Martyrdom in the Aeneid and Paradise Lost”
Milton: Past and Present
Salon C
10:15-11:30 a.m.
Jameela Lares (Southern Mississippi), Chair
William John Silverman, Jr. (Florida State)
“Fear Culture: Milton and Hobbes on Shame and Guilt in Early Modern England”
Edward Jones (Oklahoma State)
“Family Matters: The Care of the Father, the Marriage of a Son,
and a Tour of the Continent”
Patrick Scott (South Carolina)
“John Milton, Rare Books, and Cultural History: Opportunities in the Robert J. Wickenheiser
Collection of John Milton at the University of South Carolina”
Milton and Influence I
Rosecrans Room
10:15-11:30 a.m.
William Badley (Middle Tennessee), Chair
Kemmer Anderson (McCallie)
“Lycidas: How Thomas Jefferson Might Read Milton’s Poem”
T. Ross Leasure (Salisbury)
“Yesterday’s Eve: Villiers’ Debt to Milton’s Paradise Lost”
Emma Annette Wilson (St. Andrews)
“The Impact of Milton’s Education in Logic at Christ’s College, Cambridge, on Logical Styles in
Paradise Lost”
Coffee Break
11:30-11:45 a.m.
Milton and the Visual Arts
Salon A
11:45 a.m-1:00 p.m.
Wendy Furman-Adams (Whittier), Chair
Jordan E. May (Arizona)
“The Heroic Body: A Reading of Eve in Blake’s Paradise Lost Illustrations”
Clare Douglass (Belmont)
“Milton’s Paradise Lost and Satan Leaving the Court of Chaos:
A Cross Section of Art, Literature, and History
Angelica Duran (Purdue)
“’By shading Pencil drawn’: Spanish Illustrations of Milton’s Works”
Milton’s God
Salon B
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Joseph Wittreich (CUNY Graduate Center), Chair
Thomas Festa (New York-New Paltz)
“Milton and God, the Geometer”
Diana Treviño Benet (North Texas)
“God’s ‘Red Right Hand’: Violence and Pain in Paradise Lost”
Bill Goldstein (CUNY Graduate Center)
“’Some Great Matter in His Mind Revolved’:
Milton’s Samson and the Tragedy of History”
Milton and Influence II
Salon C
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Stuart Curran (Pennsylvania), Chair
Thomas Ward (Pennsylvania)
“Milton and the Press: Eighteenth-Century Perceptions”
Alice Mathews (North Texas)
“Lord Byron’s Cain: Paradise Lost, Part Two”
Lara Dodds (Mississippi State)
“’To change in scenes and show it in a play’: Paradise Lost and the Stage Directions of Dryden’s
The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man”
The Divorce Tracts
Rosecrans Room
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Sandra Mayfield (Central Oklahoma), Chair
Gillian Prowse (Harvard)
“’My name I did not publish’: Miltonic Anonymity in the Divorce Tracts”
Jennifer Nichols (Notre Dame)
“The Nature of Godhead in Milton’s Divorce Tracts”
Jeffrey Spruill (Central Oklahoma)
“’Teaching Nations How to Live’: John Wycliffe as Precedent for Milton’s
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce”
Lunch Break (on your own)
1:00-2:30 p.m.
Milton and Ecocriticism
Salon A
2:30-4:15 p.m.
Jeff Theis (Salem State), Chair
Ken Hiltner (California-Santa Barbara)
“Renaissance Literature and Our Contemporary Attitude toward Global Warming”
Diane McColley (Rutgers)
“’Space may produce new worlds’: Milton, Gaia, and Ecophilosophy”
Mary Fenton (Western Carolina)
“Grace, Nature, and Regeneration of the Land in Paradise Lost”
Jeff Theis (Salem State)
“Milton’s Green Borders: Pastoral, Ecocriticism, and Literary Form”
Milton in the Classroom
Salon B
2:30-4:15 p.m.
Bill Goldstein (CUNY Graduate Center), Chair
John Rumrich (Texas)
“Reading Him Now”
David Urban (Calvin)
“On Christian Doctrine: Teaching the Conflict and What’s at Stake”
Amy Stackhouse (Iona)
“Envisioning Paradise Lost”
Steve Orlando and Margaret Thickstun (Hamilton)
“Translating Paradise Lost: From Poem to Graphic Novel”
Paradise Lost II
Salon C
2:30-3:45 p.m.
Bryan Adams Hampton (Tennessee-Chattanooga), Chair
Glenn Sucich (Northwestern)
“’Forthwith to dissolve’: The Question of Satan’s Salvation Revisited”
Sandra Mayfield (Central Oklahoma)
“Beauty, Beatitude, and Satan’s Image Problem”
Beth Bradburn (Western Michigan)
“The Emergent Novel in Paradise Lost”
Coffee Break
4:15-4:30 p.m.
Samson Agonistes
Salon A
4:30-5:45 p.m.
James P. Shea (Independent scholar), Chair
Sarah Rodgers (Rutgers)
“’Foul effeminacy held me yok’t’: Samson Agonistes, Misogyny, and Incorporation”
Margaret Justice Dean (Eastern Kentucky)
“Samson’s Public Disgrace: Martyrdom in Samson Agonistes”
William Kenton (CUNY-Medgar Evers)
“What’s the Matter with Milton?: Political Theology
and the Samson Agonistes Controversy
“Reading” Milton
Salon B
4:30-5:45 p.m.
Maura Brady (LeMoyne), Chair
Ryan Netzley (Southern Illinois)
“How Reading Works: Hermeneutics and Reading Practice in Paradise Regained”
David Ainsworth (Grinnell)
“’Thou art sufficient to judge aright’: Spiritual Reading in Areopagitica”
Margaret Rice (Maryland)
“’In True Filial Freedom Placed?’: Learning to Read and the Ethics of Allegory in Paradise
Lost”
Paradise Regained
Salon C
4:30-5:45 p.m.
Ken Hiltner (California-Santa Barbara), Chair
Stella Revard (Southern Illinois)
“Charles, Christ, and Icon of Kingship in Paradise Regained”
Samuel Smith (Messiah)
“The Son’s Solitude in Paradise Regained”
Derek N. C. Wood (St. Francis Xavier)
“Rhetorical Harlotry and True Eloquence in Milton’s Late Poetry”
Miltonic Sources
Rosecrans Room
4:30-5:45 p.m.
Amy Stackhouse (Iona), Chair
Karla Knutson (Kansas)
“John Milton’s Blurring of Generic Boundaries in Paradise Lost:
The Georgic as a Path to Salvation”
John Mulryan (St. Bonaventure)
“Narratalogical Patterns in Dante’s Inferno 26 and Milton’s Paradise Lost 9”
Andrew Black (Memphis)
“Encomium to Eve: A Gorgianic Reading of Paradise Lost”
Cash Bar
Salons A-C
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Dinner (Casual Attire)
7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 27
A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of
John Milton: Practice and Progress
Salon A
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Albert C. Labriola (Duquesne), Chair
John Leonard (Western Ontario)
“Paradise Lost: Some Comments on Satan”
Archie Burnett (Boston U)
“Political and Typological Readings of Samson Agonistes”
Stephen B. Dobranski (Georgia State)
“’Lend Thy Guiding Hand’: the Variorum Commentary on Samson Agonistes
Milton and the Environment
Salon B
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Maggie Kilgour (McGill), Chair
Eric B. Song (Virginia)
“The Country House Poem and the Indies (East and West):
The Shifting Scene of Milton’s Eden”
Rebecca Buckham (Villanova)
“Eve’s Fall and the Rise of Technopoly: Milton’s Prophetic Critique”
Warren Tormey (Middle Tennessee)
“Milton’s Satan and Early English Industry and Commerce:
The Rhetoric of Self-Justification”
Milton’s Sonnets
Salon C
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Glenn Sucich (Northwestern), Chair
Cori Perdue (Alabama)
“’The Spirit Within Shall on the Heart Engrave’: Milton’s ‘Live-long Monument’”
Margaret Thickstun (Hamilton)
“Resisting Patience in Milton’s Sonnet 19”
Leland Ryken (Wheaton)
“’As Ever in My Great Task-Master’s Eye’: Milton’s Sonnet 7 in Its Puritan Context”
Shorter Poems
Rosecrans Room
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Alice Mathews (North Texas), Chair
Kathleen Cuyler (North Texas)
“The Ebb and Flow of the Tragic Tide in Lycidas”
Janet Weingart Hearn (Maryland)
“’Where More Is Meant than Meets the Ear’: Prosody, Music, and Meaning in Milton’s
‘L’Allegro’ and ‘Il Penseroso’”
Adita Gupta (Rutgers)
“Verging on Transformation: Milton’s A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle
and Ideological Representations of Women”
Coffee Break
10:15-10:30 a.m.
Prose
Salon A
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Peter Medine (Arizona), Chair
Thomas Fulton (Rutgers)
“The Manuscript of the ‘Digression’ and Milton’s Historical Politics”
Stephen Fallon (Notre Dame)
“The Fascination of What’s Difficult: The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates”
Lee Morrissey (Clemson)
“All for one?: John Milton, Philosopher of Plurality”
Paradise Lost III
Salon B
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Donald P. McDonough (Central Connecticut), Chair
Emily Elizabeth Stelzer (Dallas)
“’Of Good Lost and Evil Got’:
Shades of Knowledge in Paradise Lost (Books 11 and 12)”
Debapriya Sarkar (Rutgers)
“Eve’s ‘sad experiment’: Experimentation and Its Consequences in Paradise Lost”
Boyd M. Berry (Virginia Commonwealth)
“Teaching Limited Voices in Paradise Lost”
Milton in Print
Salon C
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Jeffrey Cass (Louisiana-Monroe), Chair
Randy Ingram (Davidson)
“Lycidas on the Pages of Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin (1645)”
Bryan Adams Hampton (Tennessee-Chattanooga)
“’such harmony alone’: Hermeneutics, Incarnation, and Iconoclasm
in the Nativity Ode and Lycidas”
William A. Coulter (Randolph Macon Woman’s)
“’Conceited portraiture before his Book . . . to catch fools and silly gazers’:
Some Reflections on Paradise Lost and the Tradition of the Engraved Frontispiece”
Milton and Religious Issues
Rosecrans Room
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Peter M. McCluskey (Middle Tennessee), Chair
Nathan Stogdill (North Carolina)
“Milton Among the Popes: An Unlikely Legacy”
Daveena Tauber (Portland State)
“Milton, Menasseh ben Israel, and the Problem of Persuasion”
Carol Barton (Independent scholar)
“Who Wrote Eikon Basilike?: Milton and the Authorship Controversy”
Coffee Break
11:45 a.m.-noon
Plenary Address
Salons A-C
12:00-12:45 p.m.
Laura Knoppers (Pennsylvania State)
“’Hidden Lustre, Gems and Gold’: Excavating the Margins of Milton’s 1671 Poems”
Official Closing
12:45 p.m.
Kevin J. Donovan (Middle Tennessee), Charles W. Durham (Middle Tennessee), and
Kristin Pruitt (Christian Brothers University)
Registration
The registration fee of $120 includes the catered opening reception on Thursday, October 25;
coffee and pastry on Friday and Saturday, October 26-27; and dinner on Friday, October 27. The
registration fee may be paid by check, money order, or bank draft. We cannot accept payment by
credit card. Please make checks payable to "The Conference on John Milton" and mail with the
registration form to Kevin Donovan, Department of English, P.O. Box 401, Middle Tennessee
State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132.
Accommodations
Travel: Murfreesboro is located 35 miles south of Nashville International Airport. Anytime
Transport Shuttle Service will provide transportation between the airport and the conference site
(the Doubletree Hotel in Murfreesboro) for the special conference rate of $50 (round-trip). To
arrange airport shuttle service, use the hotlink at the conference website, or send an e-mail
message to <anytimetransport@juno.com> or call toll-free at 1-877-479-5483; be sure to ask for
the conference rate. Car rental service is also available at the airport.
Lodging: All conference activities will be held at the Doubletree Hotel; the rate there is $80
(plus tax) per room. For reservations, you can go directly to the Doubletree website at
<http://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/MBTDTDT-JMC20071024/index.jhtml>
or
use
the
hotlink
at
the
conference
website
<www.mtsu/edu~english2/milton.htm>, or call 615-895-5555 . The Doubletree will hold
rooms until September 26; we strongly encourage you to make reservations as soon as
possible. Other area motels are listed below.
...................................................................
Some Nearby Murfreesboro Motels
Microtel Inn
(615) 904-2000
151 Chaffin Place
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Country Inn & Suites
(615) 890-5951
2262 Old Fort Parkway
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Days Inn and Suites
(615) 893-8170
I-24 Exit 78B
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Hampton Inn
(615) 896-1172
2230 Old Fort Parkway
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Wingate Inn
Super 8 Motel
(615) 849-9000
(615) 867-5000
165 Chaffin Place
127 Chaffin Place
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
...................................................................
Saturday Evening Dinner at Cortner Mill:
Once again we are organizing a trip to Cortner Mill, a picturesque country restaurant, for
conference participants who are staying over Saturday night. The cost of dinner is $30. We
will provide bus transportation for those who don’t wish to take their cars.
REGISTRATION FORM
Mail to: Conference on John Milton, c/o Kevin Donovan, MTSU Box 401,
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Name _________________________________________________
Position __________________________________________
Institution _____________________________________________________________
Mailing Address (Street) ___________________________________________________
City, State, Zip __________________________________________________________
E-mail ___________________________________________________
Fee: $______ at $120 per person for _______ registrants.
The registration fee may be paid by check, money order, or bank draft.
Please put ____ names on the list for dinner at Cortner Mill.
The cost of dinner is $30 per person.
(Feel free to wait until the conference to pay for the dinner at Cortner Mill.)