1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...
2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
3. Can you find some colour plates of the poems to upload?
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.
8. What was the impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on
Blake?
9. How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?
10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti??
tbc...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi, group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q10…, I had summarized the followings:
The Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva was owned by Lord Byron (Bloom, 1996). Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John William Polidori met at the Villa Diodati in 1816. Mary’s Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori’s the Vampyre (1819) were the products of a contest among them (Bloom, 1996), who were challenged by Byron to write a ghost story (Ridenhour, 2006). Mary and Polidori dreamt up the plot of their stories after a night of ghost stories at the Villa Diodati (Arditti, 2008).
List of references:
Arditti, M. (2008, Aug 30). Two extra guests at the Villa Diodati Michael Arditti enjoys Peter Ackroyd's erudite remixing of the Frankenstein story. The Daily Telegraph, p.26.
Bloom, H. (1996). Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Bloom's notes. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.
Ridenhour, M. (2006, May 21). Melodrama at Lake Geneva; (Metro Edition). Roanoke Times & World News, p.6.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q5…I had summarized the followings:
Blake’s state in the history of English literature;
William Blake (1757-1827)
English artist and poet. Blake’s poems mark the beginning of romanticism(Oxford Dictionary of English).
The reasons;
1. The reaction against the classicism
According to Richey (1996) Blake started as a neoclassical artist and poet in the 1780s. Blake continued to aesthetic in the 1790s, although he began to use gothic imagery (Richey, 1996). However, Blake already saw classicism as an attenuated tradition in his early critique of Greek and Roman models (Richey, 1996). Then, late Blake was a gothicist (Richey, 1996).
2. The rejection of the Enlightenment
Makdisi (2003) notes that Blake actively argued against the Enlightenment. Gilpin (2004, p.37) gives the example that Blake’s satire offered “an anti-elegy to the scientific progeny of Newton”.
List of references
Gilpin, G, H. (2004). William Blake and the World's Body of Science. Studies in
Romanticism, 43(1), 35-56. Retrieved from ProQuest Central database.
Makdisi, S. (2003). William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Richey, W. (1996). Blake's Altering Aesthetic. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press.
My glossaries from Oxford Dictionary of English:
1. Romanticism
A movement in the arts and literature which originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. Often contrasted with classicism.
Romanticism was a reaction against the order and restraint of classicism and neoclassicism, and a rejection of the rationalism which characterized the Enlightenment. In music, the period embraces much of the 19th century, with composers including Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner. Writers exemplifying the movement include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats; among romantic painters are such stylistically diverse artists as William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, Delacroix, and Goya.
2. Classicism
The following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship, especially form the Renaissance to the to the 18th century. Often contrasted with Romanticism.
3. Neoclassicism
The revival of classical style or treatment in art, literature, architecture, or music.
As an aesthetic and artistic style neoclassicism originated in Rome in the mid 18th century, combining a reaction against the late baroque and rococo with a new interest in antiquity. In music, the term refers to a return by composers of the early 20th century to the forms and styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, as a reaction against 19th century romanticism.
4. Rationalism
The practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.
(Philosophy) The theory the reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge.
(Theology) The practice of treating reason as the ultimate authority in religion.
5. The Enlightenment
A European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its prominent figures included Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
6. Gothicism
From French gothique or late Latin gothicus, from Gothi. It was used in the 17th anc 18th centuries to mean ‘not classical’ (i.e. not Greek or Roman), and hence to refer to medieval architecture which did not follow classical model and a typeface based on medieval handwriting.
Hi, group:
ReplyDeleteToday, I had learnt in the class that the English romanticism is different from the others. So, I’ll rethink about Q5.
Okay, guys, can we choose a sonnet to look at, I'd really love to go over one of those. I put forward "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell.
ReplyDeleteThe central conceit seems to be, again, what is mortal and immortal, in this case, the Mistress's virginity (Halli, 2001) and virtue which she is withholding from her partner.
Halli, however, also debates whether the poem is a seduction alluding to pleasures of the flesh (IE, sex for the sake of enjoyment) or more correctly for the attitudes of the time period, a seduction in the interests of procreation. Pare (Of hte Generation of Man) is quoted as saying the "Lord hath apointed it as sa solace unto every living creature against the most certaine and fatall necesity of death: that for as much as each particular living creature cannot conticue for ever, yet they may endure by their species or kinde by propagation and succession of creatures, which by procreation, so long as the world endurth."
In a nutshell: an indivual may not have immortality, but they may have genetic immortality by having offspring.
Halli informs us that this sentiment was the predominant one in the early modern era, that copulation was for purely for procreation and that lust was just an enabler. Marvell's argument to his lady is that should she live forever she is welcome to remain chaste, but since she will not, her immortality must come from copulation and progeny.
The conceit then becomes something along the lines of, virginity forever = death/spinsterhood vs shagging and kiddies = immortality (of a type).
...I may have gotten a little off topic. Feel free to wade in here guys.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi, group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q9…,
1. Brace (2007, p.362) provides Ruth Perry’s (2002) point of view;
Rousseau’s discussion is “a restriction on women’s freedom”. The emphasis on women’s duties is “an attempt to force women into a reproductive and domestic role”.
2. Brace (2007, p 382) argues that Rousseau's discussion does not only restrict women, but also helps to sustain “a resilient masculinity” through “a whole matrix of gender norms”.
List of Reference
Brace, L. (2007). Rousseau, maternity and the politics of emptiness. Policy, 39(3), 361-373. Retrieved from ProQuest Central database.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi, group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q6… I found the information, although I do not know the most following musicians and authors…
William Blake has been referenced by popular culture (Gilbert, 2008).
1. “His work has influenced and been adapted by popular musicians like The Doors, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, U2, Van Morrison, Tangerine Dream, David Axelrod, Kathleen Yearwood and Ulver. Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg were also influenced by Blake” (Gilbert, 2008, p.W.19).
2. “Children's author Maurice Sendak and comic book authors Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Robert Crumb, and J. M. DeMatteis have all cited Blake as one of their major inspirations” (Gilbert, 2008, p.W.19).
List of reference
Gilbert, J. (2008, November 28). Blake inspire today’s Culure. The Daily Post. p.W.19.
Hi group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q6…
This is the additional information about Q6 which I just cut and pasted from Wikipeia. But in my previous direct citation, I had misunderstood that Irwin Allen Ginsberg is a musician and Robert Crumb is an author. So I think that this is a little bit useful.
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. They were considered a controversial band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona were an American.
Darren Emerson (born 30 April 1971, in Hornchurch, England) is a dance music DJ.
Lake & Palmer (ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup. In the 1970s, the band was extremely popular, selling over 35 million albums and headlining huge concerts. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (guitar, bass guitar, vocals) and Carl Palmer.
U2 are a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar) and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums and percussion).
Van Morrison (George Ivan Morrison, OBE, born 31 August 1945 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a critically acclaimed singer and songwriter with a reputation for being at once curmudgeonly, idiosyncratic, and sublime.
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member. Drummer and composer Klaus Schulze was briefly a member of an early lineup, but the most stable version of the group, during their influential mid-1970s period, was as a keyboard trio with Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. Early in the 1980s, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann, and this lineup, too, was stable and extremely productive.
David Axelrod (born April 17, 1936, Los Angeles) is an American composer, arranger and producer, across a wide range of musical genres.
Kathleen Yearwood is a Canadian experimental singer-songwriter and author, born in 1958.
Ulver (Norwegian for “wolves”) is a musical trio from Norway.
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades.
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (pronounced /ˈɡɪnzbərɡ/; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet.
Maurice Bernard Sendak (born June 10, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953 in Northampton) is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed comic book series Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell.
Grant Morrison (born January 31, 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer and artist. He is best-known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings.
Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943), often credited simply as R. Crumb, is an American artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.
John Marc DeMatteis (Born December 15, 1953) is an American writer of comic books.
Regarding Q3…
ReplyDelete"The Shepherd", by William Blake (1789) in "Songs of innocence"
http://ldms_rotation_lessons.sumacksix.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/blakeshepherd.jpg
"The Tyger", by William Blake (1794) in "Songs of experience"
http://16.media.tumblr.com/8mlXDSEogluyhw2m01QaLCjWo1_500.jpg
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi group:
ReplyDeleteRegarding Q4…
According to Mandell (2007), the use of images of Blake’s Songs is his challenge to refuse to remain silence and non-sensuous. Mandell (2007) gives the example that Blake’s “London” (in “Songs of Experience” (1794): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blake_London.jpg) suggests that the old man is imagined to be the poem’s speaker.
From this point of view, it can be said that “Holy Thursday” in “Songs of Experience” (1794), which one of examples we are looking at, suggests that the mother is imagined to be the poem’s speaker.
Mm… I’m not sure…
List of reference
Mandell, L. (2007). Imaging interiority: Photography, psychology, and lyric poetry. Victorian Studies, 49(2). 218-227. Retrieved from ProQuest Central database.
Hi group,
ReplyDeleteEnlarging on Question 10:
Byron rented the villa for the summer of 1816 (Ref. 1). John Milton visited his associate Charles Diodati at the villa over 170 years earlier (Ref. 1). It is suggested that, as a result, the villa and its connections with the poet influenced Mary Shelly in the writing of her novel (Ref. 1) while she was there. She alludes to Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ frequently in ‘Frankenstein’ (Ref. 2).
More interestingly, the inclement weather which kept the group indoors was in fact the result of a volcano erupting (Tambora) in Indonesia which killed 80,000 people. The weather was so bad that Shelley herself in her diary wrote that people were killed on Lake Geneva when a ferry overturned. Phillips (2006) writes that her novel “is a reflection of these concerns at a time when the natural world was in crisis” (p. 59.). Thus, Phillips suggests her novel is not in answer to the problems caused by the Industrial Revolution, but to the eruption which had catastrophic effects worldwide. These storms, according to Phillips, were so violent that they led Shelley to write to her half-sister describing them and that one so impacted on her that she incorporates thunderstorms twice in her novel.
Also Bryon was affected by the natural events and at the Villa Diodati, Phillips (2006) states, Byron was inspired to write ‘Darkness’. When Byron wrote “Morn came and went – and came, and brought no day” (Phillips, p. 61), he is, according to Phillips, referring to the effects of the volcano.
References:
Ref. 1: http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Places/diodati.html
Ref. 2: http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Milton/milton.html
Phillips, B. (2006, Dec.). Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s “wet ungenial summer”. Atlantis Journal, pp 59-68. Retrieved from http://www.atlantisjournal.org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/Papers/28_2/BPhillips.pdf
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEnlarging on Question 3:
ReplyDeleteMore of William Blake’s art
Songs of Innocence (1789) – Picture entitled “The Lamb”
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/speccoll/exhibits/Blake/songs_of_innocence.html
Songs of Experience (1794) – Picture entitled “The Fly”
(Also shows already mentioned pictures “The Sick Rose” and “The Garden of Love” from Critical Reader (p. 12, 13) and “The Tyger” as mentioned by Kimiko above.)
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/speccoll/exhibits/Blake/songs_of_experience.html
Enlarging on Question 6 and Blake’ influence on popular culture:
ReplyDeleteGraphic novel genre is traceable to Blake’s work.
Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/William+Blake
Van Morrison’s album “Veedon Fleece” (1974), according to the Free Dictionary (2009), is a work which was influenced by William Blake.
Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Van+Morrison
Jah Wobble’s album entitled “The Inspiration of William Blake” where Wobble sets music to Blake’s poems.
Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/the-inspiration-of-william-blake
Tangarine Dream’s album entitled “Tyger” uses Blake’s prose.
Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Tangerine+Dream
Bruce Dickinson’ album entitled “The Chemical Wedding” (1998). According to Dickinson (as cited in www.ram.org, n.d.), “the lyrical basis for The Chemical Wedding ‘is largely grounded in the myths and occult science of Alchemy and the mystical poetry of William Blake whose artwork also forms the basis for the album cover’.
Retrieved from http://www.ram.org/music/reviews/bruce_dickinson.html
Also retrieved from http://www.cinematical.com/2008/03/15/iron-maidens-bruce-dickinson-takes-on-crowley/
Ulver’s fourth album “Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (1998).
The Free Dictionary (2009) states that “the musicians blended electronics, industrial music elements, progressive metal and avant-garde rock, adding ambient passages. Lyrically, the album incorporates the entire text of the William Blake's poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”. Blake’s pictures are also used in the CD booklet.
Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Ulver
Also retrieved from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Themes+from+William+Blake's+The+Marriage+of+Heaven+and+Hell
Hi, Neo-Walt:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your posting about Q6.
I’m not familiar with popular genre, so, it’s very useful for me. Now, I’m reading your information.
Hello Kimiko,
ReplyDeleteThere’s a good definition of pop culture on this Web site. This might help.
http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g978140512433118_ss1-33
Hi guys
ReplyDeleteAttempting Q8 – Impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on Blake.
Explanation: Revolutionary idealism is taken as being ideas that are revolutionary to the time and also relating to the uprisings of the time.
William Blake (1757-1827) had opposing ideas towards Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy to the point where Blake made Rousseau and other Enlightenment exponents (eg. Voltaire) the target of his ridicule within his work (Roberts, 2007). Frye (1990) states that it is not possible to fully understand Blake’s detestation for Rousseau. However, Damon, (n.d.), states that Blake opposed the ‘Natural Man’ idea of Rousseau, along with his Deism (Damon, n.d.).
According to Collins Concise Dictionary (2001), Deism is the “belief in the existence of God based on natural reason, without revelation” (p. 385). Although Blake was anti church, monarchy and state (Roberts, 2007), he still believed in God. But Deism was the product of the Age of Reason (Damon, n.d.) and this went against Blake’s religious views (Damon, n.d.) as well as his opinion that imagination brought ‘truth’, not reason (Padgett, 2000). According to History.com (2008), Blake was “always stressing imagination over reason, he felt that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions” (p. 2)
Blake was against Rousseau’s conception of the ‘Natural Man’ who Rousseau believed degenerated with the civilizing process (Microsoft Encarta, 2009).
Blake was for the societal changes both the French and American Revolutions promised, but his attitude waivered (Frye, 1990, Roberts, 2007), with the Reign of Terror (in France) when he became disenchanted at the gross extremes of the Regime (Roberts,) and at other unchanged societal inequalities, for example, slavery (Frye). The French Revolution was borne on Rousseau’s Social Contract (Microsoft Encarta, 2009).
Examples (certainly not an exhaustive list) of Blake’s answer to the ideas of Rousseau, the Age of Reason, Deism are:
1. ‘Mock On, Mock On Voltaire, Rousseau’: is Blake’s complete dismissal of the ideals Voltaire and Rousseau stood for, eg. empiricism (Paananen, 1996)
2. ‘There is no Natural Religion’ (c. 1788)
3. ‘Jerusalem’ (Engraved 1795). According to Frye (1990), “Blake had no use for the noble savage or for the cult of the natural man” (p. 36), and showed his aversion to Rousseau in this work.
4. ‘The Song of Los’ (1795) – “Clouds roll heavy upon the Alps round Rousseau & Voltaire”
References:
Damon, S. F. & Eaves, M. (n.d.). A Blake Dictionary. Retrieved May 8, 2009, from http://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HOxpOMQ_Pa8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=rousseau+revolutionary+ideals+on+Blake&ots=UGBFtxsQbI&sig=neDdfZeqLrwGcVAFpE2GzKLkzno#PPP1,M1
Frye, N. (1990). Fearful symmetry: a study of William Blake. New Jersey:Princeton University Press.
Roberts, J. (2007). William Blake’s poetry: a reader’s guide. London: Continuum International Publishing.
Paananen, V. N. (1996). William Blake: Twayne’s English authors series. H. Sussman (Ed.), New York: Twayne Publishers.
Padgett, R. (2000). World poets volume 1: the Scribner writers series. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
“Encyclopedia Blake, William”. (2008). In History.com. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=203133
“Jean-Jacques Rousseau”. (2009). In Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 8, 2009, from http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761551924/Jean_Jacques_Rousseau.html
Hi group,
ReplyDeleteEnlarging on Q5,
William Blake (November 28, 1757–August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, his work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
According to Northrop Frye, who undertook a study of Blake's entire poetic opus, his prophetic poems form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language." Others have praised Blake's visual artistry, at least one modern critic proclaiming Blake "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced."[1]
While his visual art and written poetry are usually considered separately, Blake often employed them in concert to create a product that at once defied and superseded convention. Though he believed himself able to converse aloud with Old Testament prophets, and despite his work in illustrating the Book of Job, Blake's Christian beliefs were modified by a fascination with Mysticism and what is often considered to be his anticipation of the Romanticism unfolding around him.[2] Nonetheless, the difficulty of placing William Blake in any one chronological stage of art history is perhaps the distinction that best defines him.
Once considered mad for his single-mindedness, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical vision that underlies his work. As he himself once indicated, "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself."
Reference:
website.retrived on 12th may 2009,from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
Q3, my favourite, the Tyger
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tuffydog.com/blake.html
Hi, group:
ReplyDeleteThis posting is my re-summary of Q5 (the reasons why Blake’s poems marke the beginning of romanticism).
Whissell (2001) notes that Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are richly imaged and more emotional than the works of Blake's contemporary. Yeager (2009) notes that Blake's works, which set imagination against the custom, is certainly not in anyone's canon. Then, Blake (1996, p.40) notes that Blake’s works changed ‘the entire nature of human perception’ with ‘combative individualism’.
List of References
Blake, R. (1996, September 26). Paperbacks. The Independent. P.40.
Whissell, C. (2001). The emotionality of William Blake's poems: A quantitative comparison of Songs of Innocence with Songs of Experience. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 92(2), 459-466.
Yeager, D, M. (2009). Of eagles and crows, lions and oxen: Blake and the disruption of ethics. Journal of Religious Ethics, 37(1), 1-31. Retrieved from Wiley InterScience database.
I like your posting, Stranger. So, here's my take on Question 1.
ReplyDeleteVault as in the bank is where you keep the gold bars and it's sacred. It's your own little secret and gain pleasure in admiring, wooing and ahhing at your treasured trophy. The trophy being the ball - the fetal position of a baby. Unlike the baby who emerges after nine months, the vault as in a coffin will be nailed and buried never to see the light of day again. dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Halli (2001) writes that 'womb' and 'tomb' are a 'frequent companion in rhyme throughout the early modern period.' (p.14) going on to say that 'the pregnant womb is the worldly antidote of the tomb.' (p.14) Although, both the womb and the tomb are described as the containers of mortality in the poem (Halli, 2001), Bradbrook (1961) has been cited as noting that the spherical shape of the pregnant woman's abdomen is "the commonest symbol of Eternity" and according to Halli (2001), 'the sphere is a perfect figure of the speaker's desire for immortality through procreation.'
I was going to somehow connect virginity (no offspring) to the Virgin Queen (1533-1603) but the period don't match so ditch that.
2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
ReplyDeleteCited in the Introduction of Songs of Innocence in the Critical Reader (2009), Keynes comments that Blake was 'being directed by the innocent spirit of poetry' (p.136). With the vision of the Child piping a song about a Lamb, both of which symbolises innocence and Christianity, the audience was intended to be those who possess an innocent heart of a child. According to Furr (1997), Innocence in Blake's poems is characterised by trustfulness and spiritual resilience of childhood and Experience is characterised by darkness, confusion and pain (Furr, 1997).
By experiencing the American and French Revolutions and witnessing the poverty and pain in London, Blake's 'Songs of Experience satirize the naivete of innocence.' (Furr, 1997) At the lecture, we were guided that philosophical reason was behind the division of Innocence and Experience. I think the poems of Songs were divided into two contrary states (categories) to identify the changes in Blake's state of mind and see the differences of his thoughts and ideology, often in the identical or accompanied title but contrasting viewpoint such as in 'The Chimney Sweeper' or 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger', where goodness is displayed in the Innocence and fear in the Experience.
Furr, D. (1997). The Tyger (Criticism). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/the-tyger-poem-8.
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Beer (2005), Blake was highly regarded by the Romantic writers and others, for instance, 'Wordsworth considered Blake to have the elements of poetry "a thousand times more than either Byron or Scott." (Beer, 2005, p.207) He goes on to say that Coleridge was captivated by Blake whom he described as 'a man of Genius' and Charles Lamb thought 'The Tyger' was glorious. Although Lamb described Blake as 'mad Wordsworth', he also wrote to Bernard Barton that Blake was one of the most extraordinary persons of the age (Beer, 2005). The sanity of Blake seems to be often questioned but at the same time, his mind was equally admired for its acute sensibility. Beer (2005) quotes a friend declaring that 'his extravagance was only the struggle of an ardent mind to deliver itself of the bigness and sublimity of its own conceptions.' (p.209)
Beer, J. (2005). William Blake: a literary life. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hi Akiko:
ReplyDeleteI’m very interested in ‘sublimity of its own conceptions’ in your last quotation. If Beer gives the examples, please provide with them.
Kimiko
Example of ‘sublimity of its own conceptions’.
ReplyDeleteNeo-Walt provided us in the Week 9 posting, the definition of ‘conceptual’: “speculation that is imaginary or visionary” (HarperCollins, 2004, p. 306).
Beer (2005) writes that Blake's mind could leap too fast for the readers to see the connections. Especially when the reader lacks the traditional biblical knowledge, the implication that Blake was making becomes too hard to comprehend. The example given by Beer (2005) is, how Blake reacted to what Wordsworth wrote. Wordsworth stated in the preface to his 'The Excursion', 'that he could pass Jehovah and his thunder and his shouting angels unalarmed.' (Beer, 2005, p.209)
According to Hartman (1987), when Blake listened to this statement, he suffered a bowel complaint which almost killed him. Then Blake said in response, 'Solomon when he married Pharohs daughter and became a Convert to the Heathen Mythology Talked exactly in this way....' (p.209) At this point, since I have no biblical knowledge, I am very lost.
But according to Beer (2005), it is the association between Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter that the readers will not see yet Blake was able to make the connection straight away with Wordsworth's statement.
Hartman (1987) assumes that it was Wordsworth's proclaiming of 'Nature' in the preface and his fearless 'passing by' of the visionary realms that made Blake sick. Wordsworth asserted that nature and the human mind are 'exquisitely fitted', to which Blake responded '"You shall not bring me down to believe such fitting and fitted I know better and Please your Lordship" - an excellent example of his ability to combine an appeal to tradional language with a mischievous touch of radical insubordination.' (Beer, 2005, p.210)
Hartman, G. (1987). The unremarkable Wordsworth. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=MTjJG3xLAoUC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=the+excursion+wordsworth,+blake&source=bl&ots=PJ1nyGV7Yi&sig=h69ahpiHehTmQv8Tc4GXEkHOPuU&hl=ja&ei=1rcbSsSjEJDutQPzk4zdCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA19,M1
Hi neo-walt,
ReplyDeleteI think you answered well about Q8,here is my supplement on Q8 as following:
Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality.Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)".(wikipedia) These all were embodied in Rousseau's The Social Contract.
Reference
wikipedia,retrieved on 27th may 2009,from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
Cole, G.D.(1913).Translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract,1762
Hi Akiko;
ReplyDeleteThank you for your posting about Q5.
I have a better understanding.
Kmiko
Hi,everyone.
ReplyDeleteEnlarging on Q9.
Rosseau's assertion of women's equality can be viewed as the patriarchal assertion that women were "naturally" subordinate to men according to Carole Pateman.
He stated completely the contrasting natuural characters of the sexes.He stated clearly that women are incapable of consent, but meanwhile, he denies this and reinterprets explicit non-consent as its opposite.Rousseau advocated a contract on which the relationship between the sexes are based.
Accoding to Carole Pateman,in Rousseau's political order, women must remain excluded because of their natural moral characters and their deleterious influence upon the morals and civic virtue of men.
The continuous evlutuon of human awareness or "nature" which was illustrated in Rousseau's "Discouse on Inequlity" and " Social Contract" are in fact shift of male conciousness. For example, "Emile can be educated in the independence and judgement neccessary in a citizen who gives consent and is capable of further education through political paticipation." " Sophie's education fosters the characteristics - a concern with reputation,dependence and deceitfulness,which was condemed as vices in men by Rousseau." According to Carole Pateman.
Rousseau assert that woman " must be trained to bear the yoke from the frist ...and to submit themselves to the will of others ", that is the will of men. "The influence of women, even good women, always corrupts men." These are all due to women's natual incapability of keeping the status of free and equal individuals.
Comparing to the contemporary liberal conviction, Rousseau's assertion of women's equality is valued to be so limited, although it broke some traditional conventions in some extent,it's not enough to say its a totally assertion of women's equality in nowadays.
Refernces:
Extracts: Rousseau,J.J. (1762). Emile.In the Critical Reader
Carole Pateman(Year Unknown), The Disorder of Women , Stanford University Press.