The Role of Mathematics on the Prose and Poetry of 17th-century English Poet John Milton

FAIN: FT-60785-13

Rachel Trubowitz
University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH 03824-2620)

Milton and Mathematics will be the first book-length study to focus on the role of mathematics in seventeenth-century English poet John Milton's prose and verse. The central thesis of Milton and Mathematics is that the poet's mathematical interests enhance rather than dissipate the remarkable, revolutionary power of his writings. In Milton's era, mathematics was at the forefront of innovative thinking, and Milton recognized the revolutionary implications of seventeenth-century mathematics, including such paradigm-shifting discoveries as infinitesimals and analytic geometry. In his poetry and prose, the poet brings the new mathematics into close dialogue with his subversive literary, political, and religious opinions. During the Summer Stipend, I will write two chapters of a projected five-chapter book. [description augmented by staff]