William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790sUniversity of Chicago Press, 2003 - 394 pages Modern scholars often find it difficult to account for the profound eccentricities in the work of William Blake, dismissing them as either ahistorical or simply meaningless. But with this pioneering study, Saree Makdisi develops a reliable and comprehensive framework for understanding these peculiarities. According to Makdisi, Blake's poetry and drawings should compel us to reconsider the history of the 1790s. Tracing for the first time the many links among economics, politics, and religion in his work, Makdisi shows how Blake questioned and even subverted the commercial, consumerist, and political liberties that his contemporaries championed, all while developing his own radical aesthetic. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Fierce Rushing William Blake and the Cultural Politics of Liberty in the 1790s | 16 |
Laboring at the Mill with Slaves | 78 |
Weary of Time Image and Commodity in Blake | 155 |
Blake and Romantic Imperialism | 204 |
Impossible History and the Politics of Life | 260 |
Conclusion Striving | 313 |
NOTES | 325 |
369 | |
385 | |
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Common terms and phrases
1790s radicalism A. L. Morton aesthetic Albion America antinomian argues argument articulated artisan Babbage body Book of Urizen bourgeois Burke century chapter commercial common concept constitute context copies creative cultural Daniel Isaac Eaton defined despotism divine E. P. Thompson Eaves economic emerged engraving enthusiasm eternal factory freedom Gilles Deleuze Heaven & Hell hegemonic radicals hence human Ibid identity images imagination imperial individual industrial infinite John Thelwall Jon Mee kind labor language liberal-radical logic London Corresponding Society Marriage of Heaven Marx Mary Wollstonecraft material mill mode modern moral narrative nature ontological Oothoon organs Oriental Paine particular philosophical plate political production prophecy reading religion religious Revolution romantic seen sense slave social Song of Los Songs sovereign Spence struggle Thelwall things Thomas Spence tion University Press Urizen virtue vision William Blake Wollstonecraft words Wordsworth workers writes