William Blake

Undergraduate / Graduate

We will read a representative selection of Blake's poetic works: Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and substantial portions of the prophetic books. We will consider how image and text operate as distinct yet entangled semiotic systems in the presentation of Blake's poetry, how he fashioned an eclectic mythology from his engagements with Milton, Greco-Roman antiquity, and the Bible, and how his visionary poetics challenge Enlightenment rationality. We will reflect on the meaning of idiosyncrasy in Blake's work and how we understand the difference between individual and outsider in creative practice.