Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Maureen Quilligan

Critical Essay by Maureen Quilligan

SOURCE: Quilligan, Maureen. “The Gender of the Reader and the Problem of Sexuality.” In Milton's Spenser: The Politics of Reading, pp. 175-244. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983.

In this excerpt, Quilligan looks at the role of reading and listening in Paradise Lost, noting that much of the action in the poem turns on whether Eve assumes a mediate position and with whom, concluding that Eve comes close to demonstrating the poem's “fit reader.”

The Gender of Milton's Muse And, the Problem of the Fit Reader

If we turn now to that superior song and look at one of Milton's invocations in Paradise Lost, we shall see how he confronts the problems of the gender of inspiration and the concomitant problem of his reader's gender. In Book VII Milton invokes his muse for the first time by a specific name—Urania—and for the first time explicitly indicates that the Muse can be figured forth as female in gender.¹ Embedded within this invocation is...
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