Post-Colonial Paradise Lost Pre-write

The Motherland and her dependent colonial offspring
by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Thesis Statement:
Although Milton's Of Reformation and Paradise Lost still share many similarities with other works under postcolonial criticism, they ultimately condemn colonialization and predict the eventual dissolution of the English Empire.

Parallels between colonial history and Paradise Lost, Satan and colonizers both:

• Oppose higher power and cause a civil war
• Move across expanse to new, beautiful land
• Encounter beautiful, unintelligent, indigenous people
• Cause the downfall of the indigenous with words
• Return as conqueror
• NEW TWIST (main difference from many other works under postcolonial criticism): Satan (colonizer) is punished

Quotes showing Milton's prediction in Of Reformation:

"In all these things hath the Kingdome been of late sorely weakened, and chiefly by the Prelates. What numbers of faithful and freeborn Englishmen and good Christians have been constrained to forsake their dearest home, their friends, and kindred, whom nothing but the wide Ocean, and the savage deserts of America could hide and shelter from the fury of the Bishops."

The Rhetoric of Peace, Prosperity, and War

[Copyright Duncan Hull]

Recently, some of my classmates have been posting responses to our studies of rhetoric, and I wanted to take the chance to explore the topic from a socio-historical point of view. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of human interaction, rhetoric is simply the techné of influencing other people. Thus, as Aristotle suggests, it represents neither a positive nor a negative force and can be wielded by good and evil men alike. In Gideon Burton's article, "What is Rhetoric?" the author suggests that language and, by extension, rhetoric, have served as primary facilitators in the growth of nations and the development of human civilization as a whole:

Because there has been implanted in us the power to persuade each other and to make clear to each other whatever we desire, not only have we escaped the life of wild beasts, but we have come together and founded cities and made laws and invented arts. (2)

[Copyright Traci Gardner]