Milton for millennials

sponsoring digital creativity through Milton revealed

Hugh Macrae Richmond

pp. 225-243

in: David Currell, Islam Issa (eds), Digital Milton, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

An earlier twentieth-century anti-Miltonism has given way to criticism, theology, and novels illustrating Milton's newly catalytic role, which has reached a current climax with the impact of Philip Pullman. Richmond considers how at University of California, Berkeley, scholars and artists reinforced this recovery by stressing Milton's potency through stagings of Comus and Paradise Lost. The Milton courses enrolled over 200 students and the experiences were registered in a documentary, Milton by Himself, now in national distribution. These resources are consolidated on the website Milton Revealed, focused on the modern wave of creativity evoked by Milton's influence, including visuals, film clips, bibliographies, and other data, and registering up to 1000 hits per day. This chapter historicizes the curation and impact of the website.