The Uncertain World of Samson Agonistes

by Shawcross, John T.

• ISBN13: 9780859916097
• ISBN10: 085991609X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Ds Brewer

Summary

Shawcross proposes that the many ambiguities surrounding Milton's dramatic poem Samson Agonistes are intentional: the actual words, the dates of composition, the genre, and the characters - particularly Samson and Dalila but including Manoa, Harapha, and the Chorus. Ambiguity also lies in Milton's presentation of political issues both philosophical and practical, his treatment of gender concepts, the constant questioning of the reader, and the poem's effect. Discussing all these elements, Shawcross follows with a detailed reading of the text which argues that it remains purposefully ambiguous, reflecting Milton's own recognition of the uncertainty of the content, and suggesting that Milton himself would question some of the nice 'solutions' that modern scholarship has offered in the last two decades.JOHN SHAWCROSS is Professor of English, Emeritus, University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
The World of Samson Agonistes	1	(16)
Uncertainty and the Text	17	(18)
The Dramatic Work and its Reading	35	(13)
Samson: God's Champion, a Type, or Individual?	48	(15)
Dalila: Seductress of Wife?	63	(18)
Politics in the Destabilized Text	81	(11)
Biographical Intrusion	92	(10)
The Uncertainties of Irony	102	(1)
A Hermeneutics of the Text	102	(36)
Samson Agonistes and Consistencies of Belief	138	(7)
List of Works Cited	145	(8)
Index	153