VU MA Student to be Published in Milton Studies
Congratulations to our own Em Friedman, MA ’22, who has had an article accepted for publication in Milton Studies.
According to Em, “My paper is called ‘Unsexing Eden’ and it is about the subjective difference between Eve and Adam in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. My premise is that, while most readers and critics take Eve and Adam’s gender/sex difference for granted in prelapsarian Eden, this assumption does not necessarily derive from the metaphysical conditions of Milton’s monist materialism. After showing how physical morphology wouldn’t render ontological subjective-sexed positions in the poem, I offer a psychoanalytic reading of the first couple’s subject-formation. I draw from Lacan because of the centralized role sexuation plays in his account of subjectivation, and take up critical feminist and queer responses to Lacan including those by Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. However, my analysis departs from most psychoanalytic readings because I argue that prelapsarian Eden is a place without originary loss, which is coded as the phallus in psychoanalysis (a major problem for queer/trans/feminist theory). Without the phallus, Eve and Adam have genderqueer/trans subjectivities! Which is so cool to me. I feel a lot of resonance between the poem and my project in this paper, since the poem itself is concerned with how things come to be and the order than creates meaning. I love that the “dark materials” that God uses for his Creation in Paradise Lost proves itself as equally available to here and now, containing in it the possibility to create other orders and serve contemporary, liberatory goals and imaginations.”
Em described their process of writing and how their work at Villanova contributed to the paper:
“My first version of the article was a final seminar paper for Lauren Shohet’s Milton class in Fall 2020 (my first semester at Villanova). Via Dr. Shohet’s amazing pedagogy, I fell in love with Paradise Lost and particularly, Eve’s characterization. I found her, and Adam also, to some extent, so weird and transgressive in unexpected ways. Between Dr. Shohet’s own research interests emerging in the classroom combined with the way she taught the poem, and the class discussions she facilitated, something clicked and I found Paradise Lost to be the perfect setting to explore ideas about gender and difference and subjectivity. It helps that I got to read all this drippy, ornate, gorgeous verse for research. After turning in my final paper, Dr. Shohet gave me generous feedback and encouraged me to continue working on it and send it to Milton Studies. After several rounds of edits and revision, I sent it in and got the revise and resubmit in June.”
Em had some advice and reflection about the writing process as well:
“The writing process can be difficult, but I feel beyond lucky to not only have the opportunity to pour myself into work but also to have brilliant people around me and amazing mentorship. Jackie, my partner, gave me her time and feedback as I drew charts over dinner about the Lacanian Real-Imaginary-Symbolic and Eve and Adam, Ailie, my Villanova grad. student friend and neighbor, walked all over west Philly with me, picking figs, while we talked in-depth about Kristeva and Eve’s unconscious/Lacanian Real. Lisa, my dear friend and lifelong editor (who just won a Pulitzer for journalism this year!!!) asked me pointed questions about why I care so much about the phallus. And Dr. Shohet! Basically talked me down the last week of writing—I was convinced I still had 6 more weeks of work, and within an hour of my terrified email, she hopped on zoom and went through my essay with me paragraph by paragraph, completely reorienting me to where I needed to be. She has been such an incredible mentor, and I would have never known I had this in me if it were not for her help.”
Em added: "The English M.A. program and funding from Villanova has really supported by work. Also: shout-out thanks to Travis Foster, who I work with as Graduate Assistant for Gender and Women’s Studies. Dr. Foster has been greatly supportive to my scholarship and writing, and has helped make sure the GWS certificate bolsters the work I am doing towards my English degree, which has been amazing and generative, especially for an interdisciplinary piece like this."
Congratulations on the publication, Em!
According to Em, “My paper is called ‘Unsexing Eden’ and it is about the subjective difference between Eve and Adam in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. My premise is that, while most readers and critics take Eve and Adam’s gender/sex difference for granted in prelapsarian Eden, this assumption does not necessarily derive from the metaphysical conditions of Milton’s monist materialism. After showing how physical morphology wouldn’t render ontological subjective-sexed positions in the poem, I offer a psychoanalytic reading of the first couple’s subject-formation. I draw from Lacan because of the centralized role sexuation plays in his account of subjectivation, and take up critical feminist and queer responses to Lacan including those by Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. However, my analysis departs from most psychoanalytic readings because I argue that prelapsarian Eden is a place without originary loss, which is coded as the phallus in psychoanalysis (a major problem for queer/trans/feminist theory). Without the phallus, Eve and Adam have genderqueer/trans subjectivities! Which is so cool to me. I feel a lot of resonance between the poem and my project in this paper, since the poem itself is concerned with how things come to be and the order than creates meaning. I love that the “dark materials” that God uses for his Creation in Paradise Lost proves itself as equally available to here and now, containing in it the possibility to create other orders and serve contemporary, liberatory goals and imaginations.”
Em described their process of writing and how their work at Villanova contributed to the paper:
“My first version of the article was a final seminar paper for Lauren Shohet’s Milton class in Fall 2020 (my first semester at Villanova). Via Dr. Shohet’s amazing pedagogy, I fell in love with Paradise Lost and particularly, Eve’s characterization. I found her, and Adam also, to some extent, so weird and transgressive in unexpected ways. Between Dr. Shohet’s own research interests emerging in the classroom combined with the way she taught the poem, and the class discussions she facilitated, something clicked and I found Paradise Lost to be the perfect setting to explore ideas about gender and difference and subjectivity. It helps that I got to read all this drippy, ornate, gorgeous verse for research. After turning in my final paper, Dr. Shohet gave me generous feedback and encouraged me to continue working on it and send it to Milton Studies. After several rounds of edits and revision, I sent it in and got the revise and resubmit in June.”
Em had some advice and reflection about the writing process as well:
“The writing process can be difficult, but I feel beyond lucky to not only have the opportunity to pour myself into work but also to have brilliant people around me and amazing mentorship. Jackie, my partner, gave me her time and feedback as I drew charts over dinner about the Lacanian Real-Imaginary-Symbolic and Eve and Adam, Ailie, my Villanova grad. student friend and neighbor, walked all over west Philly with me, picking figs, while we talked in-depth about Kristeva and Eve’s unconscious/Lacanian Real. Lisa, my dear friend and lifelong editor (who just won a Pulitzer for journalism this year!!!) asked me pointed questions about why I care so much about the phallus. And Dr. Shohet! Basically talked me down the last week of writing—I was convinced I still had 6 more weeks of work, and within an hour of my terrified email, she hopped on zoom and went through my essay with me paragraph by paragraph, completely reorienting me to where I needed to be. She has been such an incredible mentor, and I would have never known I had this in me if it were not for her help.”
Em added: "The English M.A. program and funding from Villanova has really supported by work. Also: shout-out thanks to Travis Foster, who I work with as Graduate Assistant for Gender and Women’s Studies. Dr. Foster has been greatly supportive to my scholarship and writing, and has helped make sure the GWS certificate bolsters the work I am doing towards my English degree, which has been amazing and generative, especially for an interdisciplinary piece like this."
Congratulations on the publication, Em!
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