Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 483 9 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 Three and a half centuries after Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain’d were written, do Milton’s epic poems still resonate with contemporary concerns? In Milton’s Leveller God, David Williams advances a progressive and democratic interpretation of Milton’s epics to show they are more relevant than ever. Exploring two blind spots in the critical tradition – the failure to read Milton’s poetry as drama and to recognize his depictions of heaven’s political and social evolution – Williams reads Milton’s “great argument” as a rejection of social hierarchy and of patriarchal government that is more attuned to the radical political thought developed by the Levellers during the English Revolution. He traces echoes between Milton’s texts and thousands of pages of Leveller writings that advocated for popular rule, extended suffrage, and religious tolerance, arguing that Milton’s God is still the unacknowledged ground of popular sovereignty. Williams demonstrates that Milton’s Leveller sympathies freed him to imagine an egalitarian republic. In a work that connects the great epic poet in new ways to the politics of his time and our own, Milton’s Leveller God shows how the political landscape of Milton’s work fundamentally unsettles ancient hierarchies of soul and body, man and woman, reason and will, and ruler and ruled. “This beautifully written book is one that all scholars of Milton will have no choice but to read and contend with.” John Rogers, Yale University David Williams is a retired professor of English at St Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba and the author of Media, Memory, and the First World War. While trauma theory has been adopted by contemporary literary and cultural studies as an ethical way to study depictions of suffering, there is a risk that its present use could cause more harm than good. By emphasizing inaccessible histories, unspeakable suffering, and unconscious witnessing, trauma theory may lead readers to claim others’ suffering through empathic identification. In With the Witnesses, Dale Tracy argues that poetry offers an alternative approach to engage with not only suffering in art but suffering in general. Examining the strategies of witness poetry, Tracy interrogates and reformu- lates the dominant models of trauma studies in which readers take over the witnessing position by identifying with the speaker as a witness. Against this metaphoric logic of substitution, Tracy proposes compassion as a mode of re- sponse that is consistent with the poetry’s metonymic strategies. She examines poems by renowned international authors such as Seamus Heaney, Dionne Brand, Les Murray, and Adrienne Rich, as well as several lesser-known writ- ers. Discussions of poems that respond to diverse national and transnational contexts of atrocity, conflict, and marginalization guides With the Witnesses toward a compassionate response to suffering that involves contiguity rather than substitution, nearness rather than likeness, and most importantly, feeling with – not as – another. Following each poem as a unique theory of compassion, With the Witnesses demonstrates that a witness can stand with those who suffer without standing in for them. Dale Tracy is assistant adjunct professor in the Department of English at the Royal Military College of Canada. E N G L I S H L I T E R AT U R E • H I S T O R Y L I T E R A R Y T H E O R Y A N D C R I T I C I S M S P E C I F I C AT I O N S June 2017 978-0-7735-5034-6 $39.95A CDN, $39.95A US, £34.00 paper 978-0-7735-5033-9 $120.00S CDN, $120.00S US, £103.00 cloth 6 x 9 496pp eBook available S P E C I F I C AT I O N S June 2017 978-0-7735-5028-5 $34.95A CDN, $34.95A US, £29.99 paper 978-0-7735-5027-8 $110.00S CDN, $110.00S US, £95.00 cloth 6 x 9 264pp eBook available Milton’s Leveller God david williams A look at political evolution in Milton’s epic poems, from feudal monarchy to Leveller-style democracy in heaven and on earth. With the Witnesses Poetry, Compassion, and Claimed Experience dale tracy How poetry’s compassion revises trauma theory.