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Description of  Gender and the Power of Relationship: United as one individual Soul in Paradise Lost (Medieval & Renaissance Literary Studies)

0820703400 pdf In this provocative study, Kristin A. Pruitt offers a close reading of pivotal passages and critical concerns in Paradise Lost and examines Miltons presentation of Adam and Eves relationship through the intersections of theology and gender in the poem. By delving into several seventeenth century commentaries on Genesis, Pruitt examines the various depictions of Eve and presents Miltons Eve and her relationship with Adam. In recent years, scholars have addressed the disparate, often contradictory positions on gender and hierarchy in Paradise Lost. However, Pruitt adds to the discussion another layer: that the dialectic in the poem the parallels and reversals in structure, imagery, action, and characterization offer a reading from multiple perspectives and means of understanding one of the poems principal messages, which is the dual emphases on individuality versus selfhood and relationship versus union as they illuminate the ideal of unity in diversity. Read more