7th Annual WML Academic Symposium

Time: 10:30 AM
Rm 312
Presenter(s): Jaimee Sharp
Title: Utopia or Nightmare?: Milton's Paradise Lost and Joss WHedon's Angel
Developed under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Rambo , English

In both John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Joss Whedon's series, Angel, apocalypses are depicted that change the nature of the world, and the knowledge and freedom of those who live in it. One approach to Milton’s narrative is the idea of the Felix Culpa, or fortunate fall, meaning that man’s fall and gaining of knowledge brought the promise of free will and redemption in Christ, along with an eventual return to paradise. In Angel, Whedon creates an Infelix Culpa, where demons seek to remove humanity’s free will and bring the promise of destruction and evil, returning the world to its original state, the garden of demon.