Christians and Adversaries in the Evolving Norton Anthology of English Literature

Abstract

This chapter examines fifty years of evolving annotations in the influential Norton Anthology of English Literature. As editors provide information about canonical works that aim to present Christian truth—like The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost—they find themselves entangled with an increasingly secular literary world. Notes from earlier editions tend to reflect the perspective of a Christian insider; later editions gradually revise these notes to reflect a more secular literary landscape and to attract the broadest possible audience. The chapter studies these effects by focusing on three “adversaries” to Christianity (as seen by many traditional Christians): Milton’s Satan, Islam, and queer sexuality. Later editions of Norton secularize the anthology by excising or revising notes that endorse or privilege Christian beliefs, but the new notes are not belief-neutral in any simple sense.