- Paperback: 436 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press; 2nd edition edition (31 Mar 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 067485747X
- ISBN-13: 978-0674857476
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
226,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Books > Fiction > Poetry & Drama > Poetry > World > Italian
- #77 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Poetry
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £14.35
Trade in Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £14.35, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Many think of Surprised by Sin as Stanley Fish's best book: not just provocative, but strategic, in directing attention to Milton's designs on his readers.' - Alastair Fowler, Times Literary Supllement
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
This text was first published in the 1960s, in an era that no longer saw the need to choose between Milton's orthodoxy and heresy. Rather, Stanley Fish allowed us to see the epic poem as a self-revelatory experience in which the reader is "intangled" in the folds of Satan's rhetoric and is forced to re-evaluate his or her judgment of Satan by being led to experience unreliability, inadequacy, or falseness of what had once seemed to be clear or true. In a new preface, Fish revisits the thesis of "Surprised by Sin" and considers the challenges offered by post-structuralism, late-20th-century historicism, and political criticism.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
indeed surprised,
By
This review is from: Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" (Paperback)
I loved his reader-response criticism. He argues that the reader is initially tricked by Satan by his use of persuasive and seductive language, thus when he tricks Eve to eating the fruit, we are surprised at how much we were nearly caught up by Satan and trusting him. This allows us to appreciate God's grace more, because it is as though we have committed some kind of sin, together with Adam and Eve.
It is a highly sophisticated argument, very interesting, and I think it has opened a new way for me to approach Paradise Lost.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic of Milton criticism,
By jon bornholdt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" (Paperback)
According to Fish, "Paradise Lost" operates according to a mechanism of rhetorical indirection that works on all rhetorical levels, from depiction of character to deployment of tropes. Milton wants to show us how our fallen state corrupts and distorts our responses to poetry and instruction; the poem is constructed as a series of interlocking traps for the reader, who is lured into reacting in tempting but "wrong" ways to tropes ("with serpent error wandering") and characters (the apparently admirable Satan and his cohorts, the apparently tyrannical and odious God). The chapter on the poetics of prelapsarian Eden ("In Wandering Mazes Lost," I think it's called) is a masterpiece. Fish backs this all up with plenty of solid research into the theological doctrines Milton was known to endorse or was likely to have been familiar with. This approach to Milton was regarded as radical when the book first came out, rather oddly, since Milton's tactics of indirection had already been noted by several critics, though not foregrounded as here. What's new is the thoroughness and clarity of the treatment, and Fish's sheer intelligence as a reader. This is criticism at its best: lucid, engaging, responsible, illuminating. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fish is a bloody genius!,
By Smokiechick - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" (Paperback)
He also tends to be a bit long winded. Like nearly all literary criticism, the pages wasted on explication and redundancy are boring and just plain time-consuming. His thesis is brilliant. It's obvious once he states it, but it's not anything I have ever considered. It was originally published in 1967, so his theory has been out in academia for a long time now, but this is the first time I have been confronted with his perspective on the role of the reader in _Paradise Lost_. It also, in effect, makes Milton even more brilliant. I suppose I could have gone with 5 stars, but seriously, it's literary criticism: It's hard to "Love" Lit Crit...
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After 300 years, the final word.,
By S. W. Schmitt "Interested in reality" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" (Paperback)
Critics, including Shelley, have argued over "Paradise Lost" for over 300
years. Stanley Fish has answered the crucial question once and for all: "What was Milton doing?" In a critical masterpiece, Fish has opened for all of us the pedagogic purpose of this monumental work. With a pattern of "mistake, correction, instruction," Fish has broken the code; showing at once that we are still "fallen" and susceptible to the rhetoric of Satan and his minions, and in what ways we, as "fallen man" continue to respond to the persuasion of the serpent in the Garden. It's hard to see what more can be written about "Paradise Lost" after this landmark exigesis. Read it and see how easily we can be seduced - and today's political discourse continues the tradition. |
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
