Stephen Dobranski
Regents’ Professor English- Education
Ph.D., University of Texas
- Specializations
Milton, Renaissance Literature, Textual Studies
- Biography
Dr. Dobranski teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in John Milton, early modern literature, and textual studies as well as courses in mythology and British and world literature. His primary goal as an instructor is to help students think more critically by analyzing the subtlety and complexity of literary works within their cultural and historical contexts. Students can discover a text’s multiple implications through slow, deliberate analysis of its metaphors, material form, and meter.
Dr. Dobranski is the editor of the journal Milton Studies. His most recent books are Reading John Milton (Stanford UP, 2022) and a new edition of Paradise Lost (W. W. Norton, 2022). He is also the author of Readers and Authorship in Early Modern England (Cambridge UP, 2005), which received the SAMLA Studies Award; and A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton: “Samson Agonistes” (Duquesne UP, 2009), which received the John T. Shawcross Award from the Milton Society of America.
He co-edited Milton and Heresy (Cambridge UP, 1998) and edited Milton in Context (Cambridge UP, 2010), both of which received the Irene Samuel Memorial Award from the Milton Society. His other books include Milton, Authorship, and the Book Trade (Cambridge UP, 1999); The Cambridge Introduction to Milton (Cambridge UP, 2012); and Milton’s Visual Imagination: Imagery in “Paradise Lost” (Cambridge UP, 2015).
He has received a Pforzheimer Fellowship from the Harry Ransom Center and a Seminar Fellowship to the Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies. His articles have appeared in multi-authored collections as well as ELR, Milton Quarterly, Milton Studies, Modern Philology, PMLA, RES, Seventeenth Century, and SEL.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Dr. Dobranski is a die-hard Phillies, Springsteen, and Washington Commanders fan. His lives with his brilliant wife, Shannon, and their amazing daughter. For more information, visit stephendobranski.com.
- Publications
Books
Political Turmoil: Early Modern British Literature in Transition, 1623-1660. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Editor.
Milton’s Visual Imagination: Imagery in “Paradise Lost.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
The Cambridge Introduction to John Milton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Published simultaneously in hardback and paperback.
Milton in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Editor.
A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton: “Samson Agonistes.” Intro. Archie Burnett. Ed. Paul Klemp. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2009.
Readers and Authorship in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Reprinted in a paperback edition, 2009.
Milton, Authorship, and the Book Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Reprinted in paperback edition, 2008.
Milton and Heresy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Co-editor John Rumrich. Reprinted in a paperback edition, 2009.
Selected Articles
“Clustering and Curling Locks: The Matter of Hair in Paradise Lost.” PMLA 125 (2010): 337-53.
“What Fielding Doesn’t Say in Tom Jones.” Modern Philology 107 (2010): 632-53.
“Recent Studies in the English Renaissance.” SEL: Studies in English Literature 49 (Winter 2009): 197-280.
“The Birth of the Author: The Origins of Early Modern Printed Authority.” In Authority Matters: Rethinking the Theory and Practice of Authorship. Ed. Stephen Donovan, Danuta Fjellestad, and Rolf Lundén. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. 23-45.
“Editing Milton: The Case Against Modernisation.” The Review of English Studies 59 (2008): 392-408.
“Simmons’s Shell Game: The Six Title Pages of Paradise Lost.” In “Paradise Lost: A Poem Written in Ten Books”: Essays on the 1667 First Edition. Ed. Michael Lieb and John T. Shawcross. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2007. 57-78, 240-44.
“Milton and Textual Studies: Teaching ‘On Shakespeare’ as a Work in Progress.” InApproaches to Teaching Milton’s Shorter Poetry and Prose. Ed. Peter Herman. New York: Modern Language Association, 2007. 54-61.
“Seizures, Free Will, and Hand-Holding in Paradise Lost.” In Milton, Rights, and Liberties. Ed. Christophe Tournu and Neil Forsyth. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2007. 269-82.
“Pondering Satan’s Shield in Milton’s Paradise Lost.” English Literary Renaissance 35 (Autumn 2005): 490-506.
“Milton’s Ideal Readers.” In Milton’s Legacy. Ed. Kristin A. Pruitt and Charles W. Durham. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2005. 191-207.
“Text and Context for Paradise Regain’d and Samson Agonistes.” In Altering Eyes: New Perspectives on “Samson Agonistes.” Ed. Joseph Wittreich and Mark R. Kelley. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2002. 30-53.
“Jonson’s Poetry Lost.” English Literary Renaissance 30 (Winter 2000): 77-94.
“Burghley’s Emblem and the Heart of Milton’s Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio.” Milton Quarterly 34 (May 2000): 33-48.
“Milton’s Social Life.” In The Cambridge Companion to Milton. 2nd ed. Ed. Dennis Danielson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 1-24.
“Children of the Mind: Miscarried Narratives in Much Ado about Nothing.” SEL: Studies in English Literature 38 (Spring 1998): 233-50. Reprinted in Vol. 55 of Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 268-76.
“Licensing Milton’s Heresy.” In Milton and Heresy. Ed. Stephen B. Dobranski and John Rumrich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 139-58.
“Samson and the Omissa.” SEL: Studies in English Literature 36 (Winter 1996): 149-69.
“Letter and Spirit in Milton’s Areopagitica.” Milton Studies 32 (1995): 131-52.
“‘Where Men of Differing Judgements Croud’: Milton and the Culture of the Coffee Houses.” The Seventeenth Century 9 (Spring 1994): 35-56.