Blake, politics, and history / edited by Jackie DiSalvo, G.A. Rosso, and Christopher Z. Hobson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

DiSalvo, Jackie.

Rosso, G. A., 1954-

Hobson, Christopher Z.

Series:

Garland reference library of the humanities ; vol. 1842.

Garland reference library of the humanities. Wellesley studies in critical theory, literary history, and culture ; vol. 17.

Garland reference library of the humanities ; v. 1842. Wellesley studies in critical theory, literary history, and culture ; v. 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blake, William, 1757-1827--Political and social views.

Blake, William.

Blake, William, 1757-1827.

Politics and literature--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Politics and literature.

Literature and history.

History.

Literature and society.

Political and social views.

Great Britain.

Politics and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Political poetry, English--History and criticism.

Political poetry, English.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History.

Literature and history--Great Britain--History.

Social problems in literature.

Physical Description:

xxxii, 387 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Garland Pub., 1998.

Summary:

A groundbreaking, international collection

This anthology of original essays charts new territory in mapping the work of William Blake, combining traditional and current historicist methods with a plurality of other approaches. The first new volume on Blake in the U.S. in over 10 years, it features up-to-date scholarship by major Blake scholars plus ground-breaking work from newcomers. The volume's international scope and the fact that it contains more work by women than previous collections makes it unique.

Blake as the oracle of new historical criticism

This work represents an ongoing effort to restore politics and history to the center of Blake studies, which is particularly important in North America where Blake has been conscripted as the oracle of a new wave of historical criticism. Unlike other anthologies this volume offers a dual heritage of Blake interpretation: it brings the historical-political tradition long popular in British Blake studies into dialog with North American scholarship.

While many essays here recuperate a radical Blake opposed to imperialism, slavery, and patriarchy, differences emerge over the nature of Blake's radicalism and his stance on revolution, violence, and democratic pluralism. Contributors may champion a Blake critical of patriarchal discourse and practice, but they remain cautious about Blake's "homocentric" solutions. In the "Blake and Women" section, authors seek to reorient discussions by connecting Blake to historical issues concerning women, particularly domestic ideology and the idealized female of the conduct books.

Blake as a revolutionary artist

Situating itself within a resurgent historicism, this bold anthology moves awayfrom the apolitical Blake of mentalist and deconstructionalist criticism toward the revolutionary artist celebrated in Peter Ackroyd's biography and Jim Jarmusch's film Dead Man. In doing so, it appeals to a wide-ranging audience: not only Blake scholars, inside and out of the academy, but Romanticists, art and literary historians, and contemporary theorists working on feminism, new historicism, cultural studies, and post-colonial and reader response theory.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [354]-376) and index.

ISBN:

0815316798

OCLC:

38551085