“Confused Anarchy and the late civil broils”: The Politics of Genre in Milton’s Histories

S. Dasgupta
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Abstract

Abstract The writing of history was seminal to Milton’s conception of himself as a humanist and is a key to our understanding of his literary career. Yet, Milton’s Brief History of Moscovia and The History of Britain occupy a unique position in the way in which they are poised between the humanist notion of history as counsel and history as an assertion of “republican” values. However, situating Milton in a climate of republicanism has othen been problematic and challenging. Like writers of humanist historical narratives, Milton’s primary aim was to guide the English people in their current political crisis by making the past an analogue of the present. I wish to contend that he approaches his intention generically: by a manipulative use of the genres of history and chorography, Milton is able to straddle the earlier notion of history with the later notions of “republicanism” that permeated the political climate of England in the aftermath of the Civil War. In an inversion of Shklovsky’s notion of “form shaping content”, Milton’s reliance on genre as a vehicle for articulating his political and ideological stance, ultimately results in content shaping form.
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“混乱的无政府状态和晚期的民间动乱”:弥尔顿历史中的体例政治
历史写作对弥尔顿将自己定义为一个人文主义者有着重要的影响,也是我们理解他的文学生涯的关键。然而,弥尔顿的《莫斯科简史》和《英国史》占据了一个独特的位置,它们在人文主义的历史观念和“共和”价值观的主张之间保持平衡。然而,把弥尔顿置于一个共和主义的环境中,是有问题和挑战的。就像人文主义历史叙事的作家一样,弥尔顿的主要目的是通过用过去来类比现在,来引导英国人民应对当前的政治危机。我想说的是,他的意图是一般的:通过对历史和地理类型的巧妙运用,弥尔顿能够跨越早期的历史概念和后来的“共和主义”概念,后者在内战后渗透到英国的政治气候中。与什克洛夫斯基的"形式塑造内容"的观点相反,弥尔顿依靠体词来表达他的政治和意识形态立场,最终导致了内容塑造形式。
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