On-line resources for the study of Milton are extensive, and can serve introductory and organizing functions in your study of Paradise Lost and its importance in the canon(s) of English literature.
Choose ONE of the options below and post your 100-word report on the course folder.
For our purposes, among the most useful internet resources are searchable electronic text (etext) of Paradise Lost, bibliographies, and articles.
1. What can word frequency tell you about themes, development, or emphasis? Try one of the searchable texts in the Milton section of the junior seminar home page to see if you can find any interesting patterns of word use; for example, you might try this on-line Paradise Lost, which you can search book by book. Try searching Milton's for recurrences of significant words (e.g., "loss," "gain," "happiness," "sin," "err," "wander," "mazy," "heroic" - I'm sure you can think of others!).
2. Or you might try searching Milton's Divorce Tracts for the same words.
3. Other on-line resources provide more information about Milton's works.
4. Click here for a set of on-line essays on Milton.
5. Click here for an on-line version of Wendy Olmstead's article on transformation and identity in authors including Ovid and Milton.
6. Try searching Project Muse to get a sense of some recent work on Milton; include a bibliography in your report.
7. Try searching for "Milton" in the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism to get a sense of the ways in which criticism on Milton's works has been at the forefront of developments in literary history.
8. Of course, you can use another search tool to discover the extent of bibliography on a topic of your choice related to Paradise Lost., and the Milton section of the junior seminar page allows you access to further graphic, bibliographic, contextual, and historical materials.