John Milton's New World Contours

Elizabeth Sauer

doi:10.17851/2317-2096.28.3.47-61

Abstract

Given the relative novelty of the Americas in the early modern world, the indirectness of transatlantic routes at the time, and the vastness of his own imagination, English poet John Milton’s virtual travels to the Americas are marked by detours, circumnavigations, and chance encounters. Nevertheless, the challenge of this article is to delineate the contours of Milton’s Americas, whith attention to the specific and different historical, political, and generic contexts in which his few allusions and references to the New World appear. By doing so, one discovers that Milton approaches the Americas as a mundus alter et idem or as an exercise in othering as well as a self study.

Highlights

In his History of a Voyage (1578) to Brazil, travel writer Jean de Léry recorded his experience of “this new land of America”: “everything to be seen [...] is so unlike what we have in Europe, Asia, and Africa that it may very well be called a ‘New World’ with respect to us”
Columbus’s voyage would result in the early modern “discovery” of the Caribbean islands, and in 1498 he would land on the South American mainland
Scholars venturing into the territory of Milton in the Americas readily discover that there is no conspicuous New World orientation in Milton, J

Summary

Introduction

In his History of a Voyage (1578) to Brazil, travel writer Jean de Léry recorded his experience of “this new land of America”: “everything to be seen [...] is so unlike what we have in Europe, Asia, and Africa that it may very well be called a ‘New World’ with respect to us”.2 Annotating de Léry’s observations, Milton scholar J.

Results

Conclusion