Synopses & Reviews
Famously, Blake believed that "without contraries" there could be no "progression." Conflict was integral to his artistic vision, and his style, but it had more to do with critical engagement than any urge to victory. The essays in this volume look at conflict as it marked Blake's thinking on politics, religion and the visual arts.
About the Author
SARAH HAGGARTY is Janice Scott Junior Research Fellow in English at University College, Oxford, UK. JON MEE is Professor of Romanticism Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. His other works include Dangerous Enthusiasm: William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s. He is currently a Philip J. Leverhulme Major Research Fellow working on the idea of conversation in the Romantic period.
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Introduction--J.Mee and S.Haggarty
Blake and the Ontology of Empire--S.Makdisi
'A wise tale of the Mahometans': Blake and Islam, 1819-26--A.Whitehead
Blake, the Female Prophet, and the American Agent: The Evidence of the 1789 Swedenborg Conference Attendance List--D.Worrall
Impurity of Diction: The Harlots Curse and Dirty Words--S.Matthews
'She cuts his heart out at his side': Blake, Christianity, and Political Virtue--D.Fallon
From Donation to Demand? Almsgiving and the 'Annotations to Thornton'--S.Haggarty
'A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action': Mutuality, Converse, and Mental Fight--J.Mee
Shadows in the Cave: Refocusing Vision in Blakes Creation Myth--S.Erle
A Minute Skirmish: Blake, Hayley, and the Art of Miniature Painting--M.Crosby
Blake and the Literary Galleries--L.Cal
Blakes Poems on Art and Artists--M.D.Paley
Index