The poetic effectiveness of Milton's God is a fundamental critical issue in Paradise Lost, and the thesis addresses this concern by first surveying the various representations of God contained in the Hebrew scriptures. To speak of the biblical God, one must first understand the tremendous diversity o f his portrayals: he meets with some people in human form, and with others as a voice, a light, or an awesome presence. Milton's God shares less with the God o f Genesis than he does with the God of the prophets; yet Milton's representation demonstrates that though Eden will be lost, God will continue to manifest himself to those who seek his face. The cosmology of the epic reveals both the immensity o f creation and the intimacy o f its Creator, since the entire world is filled with the glory o f God, and yet the garden where Adam and Eve live is an archetypal sanctuary and their bower a type of Inner Temple. Milton's justification o f God's ways rests upon the timelessness of God; events that appear anachronistic at first are used to establish a context that looks beyond the strict limits of human time. On the one hand, the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Apocalypse are separate events that have not yet come to pass; but on the other hand, Milton shows how these events are simultaneously present and completed in God's presence. From God's throne, we participate in a cosmic perspective where the categories of past, present, and future are compressed into one time: we are before and beyond time. Such a transcendent perspective engenders a powerful truth: before Adam and Eve have been tempted, God's grace and mercy have found them out and they have been restored. Though Eden must be lost, the paradise of God's presence will remain. Adam and Eve will fall and the legacy of their rash act will be paradoxically for all time, but not forever. God will restore his people and wipe away their tears, and, in the context of Milton's depiction of God, that time of redemption is now. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Da tempo la critica letteraria si interroga sulla possibilità di riconoscere nella lirica di Johann Christian Günther il primo esempio di lirica soggettiva dopo la grande stagione retorica seicentesca. Gli studi tesi ad indagare il valore innovativo della sua poesia sono stati sinora dedicati quasi esclusivamente ai suoi Liebeslieder o Klagelieder; il presente lavoro si concentra invece sull'analisi dei suoi canti spirituali. La ricerca qui condotta intende dimostrare come anche nella geistliche lyrik Günther proponga spesso una rilettura in chiave personale, se non talora autobiografica, di motivi tradizionali, per quanto sopravvivano in essa elementi tipici della poesia barocca. Se i canti giovanili rimangono per lo più ancorati all'imitazione, scarsamente originale, di modelli preesistenti, le composizioni attribuibili alla fase più matura della produzione del poeta testimoniano un'evoluzione nel suo approccio alla materia sacra; tale evoluzione, rispetto alla quale si ravvisa, in particolare, l'influenza del pietismo, prende forma nell'elaborazione sempre più consapevole ed originale di motivi e tematiche. Il lavoro prende in esame diversi gruppi di liriche: il ciclo di Perikopenlieder noti come Geistliche oden uber einige Sonn- und Festtage des sogenannten Christlichen Jahres des Herrn de Sacy verfertiget; la Bibeldichtung güntheriana, i Weihnachtslieder e i Bußlieder dell'autore slesiano. / Critical interest in the rich literary production of Johann Christian Günther has been focussing on the possibility of recognizing in his poems the first example of subjective poetry after the great rhetoric season of the 17th century. Most studies investigating the innovative value of Günther's work concentrate on his Liebeslieder or Klagelieder. The present work concentrates instead on his religious poems, and aims to demonstrate that also in his geistliche Lyrik the author is able to offer a personal, sometimes autobiographical, reading of traditional themes, despite the persistence of typical baroque elements. While his early lyrics tend to remain faithful to the scarcely original imitation of pre-existing models, his later poems show a different approach to religious material. This evolution takes the form of a personal and conscious elaboration of spiritual themes, characterized by a considerable influence of pietism. The present research examines in particular Günther's Perikopenlieder, known as Geistliche Oden uber einige Sonn- und Festtage des sogenannten Christlichen Jahres des Herrn de Sacy verfertiget, his Bibeldichtung, his Weihnachtslieder and his Bußlieder.