『실낙원』 강의 준비의 실제 문제들

Abstract

Preparing for a course in Paradise Lost involves several considerations, the first of them being external conditions pertaining to the class, such as the objective of the course (whether to teach Paradise Lost as literature or as a theological narrative), the composition of the student group (whether English majors or not), the level of the course (whether undergraduate or graduate, for instance), etc. Once these factors are established, the next steps would be the choice of texts and textbooks in designing the syllabus. In Korea, the most widely available textbook for Paradise Lost for undergraduates are the Norton and Longman anthologies, whose selections of the epic vary, depending not only on the publisher but also on whether the textbook is a compacted version or not. In the case of compacted versions, which are becoming more and more popular in Korea, the selection of the epic available to us limits the way we can approach the poem. On top of these, the kinds of approaches we wish to follow (whether religious, political, feminist, etc.) will have final bearing on the selection and positioning of the selected parts of Paradise Lost. In the final part of this paper, I present a proposal for a change in syllabus for a survey course, in which I try to incorporate Milton's original intention: the justification of the ways of God to men. The changes in approach and text will serve, hopefully, to show not a model syllabus but the actual considerations involved in preparing for a syllabus to a specific course with a specific goal.