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From Allegory to Dialectic: Imagining Error in Spenser and Milton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Gordon Teskey
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Abstract

To disengage moral error from the structure of narrative in Paradise Lost, Milton had, on the one hand, to renounce allegory and, on the other hand, to redefine the probabilistic conception of truth in contemporary theories of the heroic poem. While Spenser associates error with the meanderings of narrative, Milton polarizes error and truth so that no ambiguous wandering can occur in the intervening space—precisely the space where allegorical narrative must occur. Milton sought to teach by direct statement, Spenser to form character by engaging the reader in an interpretative game.

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Research Article
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PMLA , Volume 101 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 9 - 23
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Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1986

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