Infinity and Voracity of Lists in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Abstract

Taking a cue from Stanley Fish, the focus of this essay will be on the forms of "intangling" that read as a play of captivity and unboundedness, two apparently opposed notions that, nevertheless, underpin Milton's poetics. What we propose to look at here is how these terms are effected in the literary lists, inventories, catalogues and accumulations Milton consistently explores in Paradise Lost. More specifically, this essay argues that the paradoxes of, and possible antidotes to, captivity that we see operating in the lists in Paradise Lost are staged in a treatment that lends them the quality of being at once infinite and voracious, thus a tentative antidote to (something that relieves, prevents, or counteracts, as an antidote to boredom) captivity.