William Blake

by Lucas *DO NOT USE*; John

• ISBN13: 9780582237100
• ISBN10: 0582237106
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1998-05-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The collection of essays presented in this volume represents some of the best recent critical work on William Blake as poet, prophet, visual artist, and social and political critic of his time. The critical range that is represented includes examples of Marxist, New Historicist, Feminist and Psychoanalytical approaches to Blake. Taken together, the essays consider all areas and moments of Blake's career as poet, from the early lyrics to his later epic poems, and they have been chosen to reveal not only the range of Blake's concerns but also to alert the reader to the rich variety of contemporary criticism that is devoted to him. Although the majority of essays are devoted to Blake as poet, others consider his work as printmaker, illustrator, and visionary artist. However severely individual essays choose to judge him, ultimately all the contributions to this book affirm Blake as one of the great geniuses of English art and letters. William Blake provides a valuable introduction by one of Britain's foremost critics and will be welcomed by students wanting to familiarise themselves with the work of Blake.

Author Biography

John Lucas is Research Professor in the Department of English and Media Studies at The Nottingham Trent University.

Table of Contents

General Editors'

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

"Mad" Blake

Marxist Criticismi) Blake and the Radical Traditionii) London"

History From the Bottom Up" and the New Historicism

Blake and Art Criticism

Language and Deconstruction

Reader-Response Theory

"The Divine Image"

"Dangerous Enthusiasm"

"Infinite London"

"Producers and Devourers"

"Jerusalem and Nationalism"

"'Original', 'Character' and 'Individual'"

"A New Mode of Printing"

"Blake, Women, and Sexuality"

"Female Subjectivity and the Desire of Reading (in)to Balke's Book of Thel"

"Who Didn't Kill Blake's Fly: Moral Law and the Rule of Grammar in Songs of Experience"

"Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience"

Notes on Authors

Further Reading

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.