Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Silverman, William John
URN	etd-03292011-194102
Title	Seeing While Blind: Disability, Theories Of Vision, And Milton's Poetry
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	English, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Bruce Boehrer Committee Chair Anne Coldiron Committee Member Elizabeth Spiller Committee Member Martin Kavka University Representative
Keywords	John Milton Disability Blindness Theories Of Vision Embodiment Historical Phenomenology
Date of Defense	2011-03-03
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Seeing while Blind: Disability, Theories of Vision, and Milton’s Poetry demonstrates that Milton used his blindness as a literary trope to represent blindness and vision in his poetry. It also addresses how blindness affected the way Milton saw the world through his poetry. Milton invested a scientific interest in his blindness, as evidenced by his letters to Philaras. That Blindness had an impact on Milton’s poetry is a given that many readers take for granted. Many scholars have addressed the impact Milton’s blindness had on his poetry, and a few have even attempted to retroactively diagnose Milton’s condition, but some of the best work has situated Milton’s blindness in a cultural context. When Milton started to lose his sight, and realized how much he relied on sight as a poet, he likely realized the importance of advances in natural philosophy, and especially in “physick.” Therefore Milton pursued all medical avenues available to him in an effort to save his sight. Milton’s obsession to stave off blindness split him between the way he saw himself as a poet and the way he saw himself as a Christian. Milton identifies specific developments in natural philosophy and medicine that relate to one’s ability to see. This shows the poet’s interest in human endeavors to improve the fallen body and seek new ways to acquire the “wisdom at one entrance quite shut” (PL III.50). At the same time, Milton’s blind personas and characters often simultaneously lament blindness and rejoice in the divine guidance it solicits. Milton never seems able to reconcile this dichotomy, but it reveals more nuances in meaning as well as the greater influence experimental philosophy had on his poetry. As readers a few hundred years removed from the age of Milton, we cannot experience the world the way he did. Our senses are cut off from his experiences. However, through careful research and analysis, we can reconstruct Milton’s world. Though we have a much greater understanding of the way the body functions today, Milton’s world viewed the functions of the body through a different criterion. Milton still negotiates his world through other senses, which he uses to create new worlds and which he uses to access a wisdom not shut out by his blindness. Through his efforts, Milton creates a new way to see the world poetically.
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