{"product_id":"milton-and-homer-gregory-machacek-9780820704470","title":"Milton and Homer: \"Written to Aftertimes\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the first full-length study of the relation between Milton and Homer, arguably Milton's most important precursor. It is also the first study of a major interpoetic relationship that is responsive to the historicist critical enterprise, which has been dominant within literary study for the past 30 years, and engages the work of theorists of canon formation such as Barbara Herrnstein Smith and John Guillory. Most studies of the relation between one poet and another are wholly diachronic, examining the way in which brief, verbal recollections of the earlier poet--allusions--enhance or qualify the significance of passages in the later, alluding poet's work. But this study goes beyond that, considering its focal poets within a synchronic framework that allows us to respond to the Homer of mid-seventeenth century England specifically rather than to some transhistorically unvarying Homer, thus revealing that Homer is important not only to the significance but also to the canonical status of \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e. Machacek not only examines the ways in which Homer enriches our understanding of \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e, but also argues that Milton was guided by the ways that Homeric epics were being reproduced in his time to leave something so written to aftertimes as they should not willingly let it die. The Homeric poems influenced Milton in his own ambition of composing an enduring work of literature, as Machacek details in chapters on the war in heaven as moral exemplum; on Milton's negotiation of the contradictions inherent in the genre of Christian epic; on the relation of \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e to the emerging critical categories of originality and the sublime; and on the institution of the school, to which Milton entrusted the perpetuation of his epic. Milton's approach to (and success at) securing canonical status for \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e provides important insights not only into his own artistry, but into the dynamics of literary canon formation in general. \u003ci\u003eMilton and Homer \u003c\/i\u003ewill appeal to Miltonists, classicists, scholars of early modern literature, and those interested in the debate over the formation of the literary canon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Gregory Machacek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0820704474\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820704470\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penn State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/17\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 203\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.01lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2012","brand":"Gregory Machacek","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44120346984703,"sku":"9780820704470","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_2ce5697b-6448-4bf3-89e5-b678dfeb9fd9.jpg?v=1687413831","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/milton-and-homer-gregory-machacek-9780820704470","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}