“Eyes wide shut”: Paul Ricoeur’s Biblical Hermeneutics and the Course of Recognition in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Małgorzata Grzegorzewska

doi:10.2478/texmat-2014-0004

Authors

Małgorzata Grzegorzewska University of Warsaw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/texmat-2014-0004

Abstract

The author of the paper analyzes John Milton’s great epic narrative through the lenses of Paul Ricoeur’s biblical hermeneutics and his philosophical reflection, in particular the second chapter of the philosopher’s last book, Parcours de la Reconnaissance (The Course of Recognition), devoted mainly to the prospects and pitfalls of recognizing oneself. Two excerpts from St. Paul’s Letter to Romans (14:23b) and the Letter to Corinthians (1, 13:12) highlight the main points of reference in this argument: (1) the concept of involuntary wrongdoing and (2) the contrast between the present opacity and the projected transparency of the knowing subject, connected with the promise of seeing face-to-face, whose fulfilment is rooted in God’s antecedent knowledge of a human being. It is argued that Ricoeur’s focus on the precarious fate of the “fallible man” and his simultaneous desire to outline the destiny of the “capable man” elucidate Milton’s masterpiece evocations of the Aristotelian anagnorisis in Paradise Lost.

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Author Biography

Małgorzata Grzegorzewska, University of Warsaw

Małgorzata Grzegorzewska teaches British literature in the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw. She has published two monographs on Shakespeare’s drama: Scena we krwi [Stage in Blood] and Kamienny ołtarz [The Altar of Stone], a study of early modern defences of poetry, The Medicine of Cherries, and a book-length essay on the uses of prosopopeia in English early modern poetry: Trop innego głosu [The Voice of the Other]. She is interested in the intersections of early modern literature with culture, philosophy and theology.

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