지혜의 저장소로서의 마리아: 밀턴의 『복낙원』과 주변부 목소리의 복원

Abstract

Milton places Mary as an ideal reading subject possessing unique powers of interpretation and discernment. After the Restoration Milton attempts to set up a model figure who can rightly interpret God’s word on a religious and theoretical basis to carry out an historical mission. Milton’s basic philosophy for historical vision is contingent on the mode of hermeneutics which should be reexamined in response to a changed political situation. In the course of rethinking the hermeneutic position, Milton finds out an ideal type of interpretation in Mary’s discerning activities, which can provide a new concept of the regaining of paradise. Mary generates profound insight into the nature kingdom of God and Jesus’ mission. She comprehends metaphoric and typological discourse of history based upon the dynamic relationship of history and prophesy, whereas Satan and the 1640-50’s revolutionaries stick to historical and political literalism rooted in physical prediction and monologic conditions of time. Mary’s divine hermeneutics nourishes Jesus’ meditative capabilities to recognize his Messianic identity and role and simultaneously prevents Satan’s carnal diabolic exploitation of divine information. For example, Jesus’ recollections of his mother demonstrates how her encouragement has decisive influences upon his development as Messiah, and Satan’s temptation shows how her admonition does not take part in his understanding of the scriptures and prophets. Especially, Mary’s interpretative method leads rash and impatient readers to the preparation to stand and wait and to internal spiritual power of deriving hope from trouble and despair. Mary displays superior “spirit and judgement” in her understanding of what relates to the regaining of paradise. She is aware that wisdom does not emerge from texts themselves and even holy scriptures but is produced by the critical reading abilities of employing spiritual judgement. She proves herself as ideal receptacle of wisdom by claiming that “[m]y heart hath been a storehouse long of things / And sayings laid up, portending strange events”(2.103-4) Because her wisdom is formed from this storehouse, the insight can suggest a logical and ideological framework in which Milton and revolutionaries should meet the political and ethical climate after the Restoration. Mary is located as the ideal reading subject for transforming historical process into concrete meaning. The process of regaining paradise is embodied in the interpretative model of Mary in Paradise Regained.