Night Waves - Samson Agonistes

As part of BBC Radio 3's season marking the 400th anniversary of John Milton's birth in 2008, Philip Dodd discussions his classic text Samson Agonistes. There has been much scholarly debate over whether Milton's dramatic poem, condones or criticises Samson's suicidal and genocidal attack on the Philistines. Since 9/11, that debate has taken on a topical urgency. Some scholars have questioned whether the work should be taught in schools, while others have regarded the notion of a terrorist act at the centre of Western Christian and literary history as a positive corrective to prevailing stereotypes.