WILLIAM BLAKE'S COMIC VISION by Nicholas Rawlinson ( 9780333745656 )

Item Details

Title:

WILLIAM BLAKE'S COMIC VISION

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£99.99
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ISBN 10:

0333745655

ISBN 13:

9780333745656

Publisher:

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Pub. date:

5 November, 2002

Pages:

305

Description:

This study should be of interest to the scholar and aficionado alike. It uncovers a thematic unity within Blake's early work: his far reaching use of humour. Although often dismissed as a product of his eccentricity, the author argues the comic was an essential key to Blake's concept of Vision.

Synopsis:

In the eighteenth century, comedy played a pivotal role in debates on aesthetics, education, spirituality and morality. However, despite William Blake's full-bloodied engagement with the world of eighteenth-century ideas, the abundance of wit and humour in his work and his own claim that he 'loved laughing', literary criticism traditionally paints a sombre portrait of a man for whom laughter was, at best, a crude tool for attacking the dominant ideology and, at worst, a defensive psychological twitch. This groundbreaking study blends a close reading of Blake's early work, including An Island in the Moon, and The Songs of Innocence and of Experience with fascinating historical research to demonstrate that comedy was an essential component of Blake's artistic Vision. Appealing to both specialist and casual reader alike, William Blake's Comic Vision shows how Blake's comic genius mixed biblical profundity, fairground hilarity, Pythonesque absurdity and Shakespearean warmth in some fascinating ways and some unexpected placed.

Illustrations:

biography

Publication:

Imprint:

Palgrave Macmillan

Returns:

Returnable

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WILLIAM BLAKE'S COMIC VISION

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