성서와 문학의 교차점: 『실낙원』 1권의 밀턴의 직유

Abstract

The pages that follow are about the major similes Milton uses in his book 1 of Paradise Lost. Many issues are involved in Paradise Lost; among them are Milton's unique similes, which point to the complexity of scripture and literature in all works of fallen language. The machinery of the Miltonic simile contributes to making the whole text a fluid system. It refuses to yield to the desire of making Milton's religious argument a totality disguised as a religious dogma. What matters most in the Miltonic simile is not claiming the supremacy of one over the other, but proving the limits of this claim. It marks a process in which any statement of establishing the clear-cut borderlines between the two realms is threatened by its disarticulation. Nothing could be more overdetermined, undecided, and nonlinear than the tropological system Milton masterfully creates about the relationship between scripture and literature. Individual scenes under close scrutiny from this perspective include that of 'the pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,' 'the shield of Satan,' Stan's spear,' 'the sojourners of Goshen, and 'the belated peasant.' All of these famous scenes in Book 1 of Paradise Lost start off by drawing attention to the possible convergence between scripture and literature but end up in the assertion of its impossibility and failure by dint of the force of the Miltonic simile which attests to its unique capability of never being closed off in a satisfactory manner.