"Stockton assures that the collection's intention is not to portray Milton as the unitary master of his own meaning. ... With respect to this goal, I say with conviction: mission accomplished. I am better off for having met all these queer Miltons, and I commend them to your acquaintance." (Kent R. Lehnhof, Milton Quarterly, Vol. 53 (4), 2019)
1. Rude Milton: Gender, Sexuality, and the Missing Middle of Milton Studies
Erin Murphy
Part One: Eroticism and Form
2. Queering as Critical Practice in Reading Paradise Lost
Thomas H. Luxon
3. Allegories of Breeding: Milton’s Queer Disfigurations
Corey McEleney
4. “Overflowing Cups for Amorous Jove”: Abundance and Attraction in Milton’s Elegies
John S. Garrison
5. Eros and Anteros: Queer Mutuality in The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
David L. Orvis
6. “Fellowships of Joy”: Angelic Union in Paradise Lost
Stephen Guy-Bray
7. Virtual or Immediate Touch: Queer Adaptations of Paradise Lost in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Lara Dodds
Part Two: Temporality and Affect
8. “What Hath Night to Do with Sleep?”: Religion and Biopolitics in Milton’s Mask
Melissa E. Sanchez
9. What Happened Last Night: Shameful Memories and Miltonic Nationhood
Kyle Pivetti
10. Dagon as Queer Assemblage: Effeminacy and Terror in Samson Agonistes
Drew Daniel
11. Milton’s Queer Earth: A Geology of Exhausted Life
Steven Swarbrick
David L. Orvis is Professor of English at Appalachian State University, USA. He is co-editor of Psalms in the Early Modern World (2011) and The Noble Flame of Katherine Philips: A Poetics of Culture, Politics, and Friendship (2015).
Queer Milton is the first book-length study dedicated to anti-heteronormative approaches to the poetry and prose of John Milton. Organized into sections on “Eroticism and Form” and “Temporality and Affect,” essays in this volume read Milton’s works through radical queer interpretive frameworks that have elsewhere animated and enriched Renaissance Studies. Leveraging insights from recent queer work and related fields, contributions demonstrate diverse possible futures for Queer Milton Studies. At the same time, Queer Milton bears witness to the capacity for queer to arbitrate debates that have shaped, and indeed continue to shape, developments in the field of Milton Studies.