Paradise Lost Dressed in the Costume of History: John Martin’s Rendition of Paradise Lost
Keywords:
John Martin, John Milton, Paradise Lost, illustrations, new historicism, interdisciplinarity
Abstract
The story of the loss of paradise has been read and interpreted in different ages. Commentary on Milton's Paradise Lost is not limited to verbal texts; painters and illustrators have contributed greatly to the poem by presenting their own time-bound readings and interpretations of the poem through their illustrations that are far beyond mere decorations. John Martin, in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, deletes the Father and the Son from his illustrations. Only angels such as Raphael are the representations of deity and are as powerless and tiny as Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, after the Fall seem as small, powerless and as subjugated to the natural surrounding as they were before the Fall. Satan is the only powerful figure in his elegant palace. Through a new historical outlook, the researchers aim at exposing the workings of ideology and dominant discourses that informed John Martin's pictorial reading of Milton's poem in the early 19th centuryDownloads
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References
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Barker, C. (2003). Cultural studies: Theory and practice. London: Sage.
Barlow, N. (Ed.). (1958). The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. London: Collins.
Belsey, C. (1980). Critical practice. London: Methuen.
Bentham, J. (1781). Human dispositions in general. In An introduction to the principles of morals and legistlation (pp. 105-120). Kitchener: Batoche Books.
Bowler, P J. (1976). Malthus, Darwin, and the concept of struggle. Journal of the History of Ideas, 37, 631-650. [CrossRef]
Davy, H. (1802). Discourse, introductory to a course of lectures on chemistry. In Laura Otis (Ed.), Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology (pp.140-144). Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002.
Davy, J. (Ed.) (1840). The collected works of Sir Humphry Davy. (Vol. 8). London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Foote, G. A. (1954). Science and its function in early nineteenth century England. Osiris, 11, pp. 438-454. [CrossRef]
Gaither, M. (1971). Literature and the arts. In Stallknecht & Horsd Frenz (Eds.), Comparative literature, method and perspective (pp.153-172). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Gordon, E.O. (1970). The Life and Correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S. London: Murray. Retrieved March 20, 2011 from http://www. ebooksread.com/authors-eng/elizabeth-oke-buckland-gordon/the-life-and-correspondence-of-william-buckland-ddfrs-sometime-dean-of-w-hci/page-3-the-life-and-correspondence-of-william-buckland-ddfrs-sometime-dean-of-w-hci.shtml.
Jones, W. (1784). A discourse on the institution of a society. The Monthly Review, 71, 354-379.
Klingender, F.D. (1974). Art and the industrial revolution. London: Noel Carrington.
Loomba, A. (2000). Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge.
Martin, J. (1824-26). Adam and Eve leaving. Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://myweb.stedwards.edu/georgek/milton/martin/martin23.html.
Martin, J. (1824-26). Raphael conversing with Adam and Eve. Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Martin3.html.
Martin, J. (1824-26). Satan exalted. Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://myweb.stedwards.edu/georgek/milton/martin/martin5.html.
Martin, J. (1837). The Country of guanodon. Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=229590.
Martin, J. (1824-26). Expulsion of Adam and Eve. Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://myweb.stedwards.edu/georgek/milton/martin/martin24.html.
Milton, J. (1667). Book one. In M. Y. Hughes (Ed.), Paradise Lost (LL 670-8). New York: The Odyssey Press.
Milton, J. (1667). Book two. In M. Y. Hughes. (Ed.), Paradise Lost (LL 1-5). New York: The Odyssey Press.
Nikolajeva, M. & Scott, C. (2000). The Dynamics of picturebook communication. Children’s Literature in Education, 31, 225-239. [CrossRef]
Rudwick, M. J.S. (1992). Scenes from deep time: Early pictorial representation of the prehistoric world. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Semonin, P. (1997). Empire and extinction: The dinosaur as a metaphor for dominance in prehistoric nature. Leonardo, 30, 171-182. [CrossRef]
Svendsen, K. (1961). John Martin and the expulsion scene of Paradise Lost. Studies in English Literature, 1, 63-73. [CrossRef]
Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Wolf, B. J. (1985). A Grammar of the sublime, or intertextuality triumphant in Church, Turner, and Cole, New Literary History, 16, 321-41. [CrossRef]
Published
2012-04-10
How to Cite
Atashi, L., & Anushiravani, A. (2012). Paradise Lost Dressed in the Costume of History: John Martin’s Rendition of Paradise Lost. K@ta, 13(2), 162-178. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.13.2.162-178
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
