Knight of the Living Dead: William Blake and the Problem of Ontology"In Knight of the Living Dead, Kathleen Lundeen investigates Blake's work in the context of his spiritualistic practices, and shows how he attempts to create a discourse that circumvents the binary of natural and arbitrary signs. Her examination of his word-image art demonstrates that, in Blake's view, what we recognize as word or image depends upon our epistemological orientation, just as what we term "matter" or "spirit" is determined by our state of perception. It further shows how Blake critiques textual theory in both his songs and prophecies by stabilizing the two sets of parameters that are used to define and classify signs: the general and particular, and the literal and figurative. Moreover, she argues, Blake provides an epistemological alternative to empiricism and rationalism in his poetry and art. Through verbal and visual experiments he defies the logic that is rooted in sense perception and reason, and he attempts through those experiments to return textuality to a divinely literal condition. By treating spiritualism as an aesthetic practice and art as an otherworldly communication, he undermines the institutionalized boundaries in art and life, and presents a formidable challenge to the whole matter/spirit dualism upon which Western culture is based."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 21
Page 7
... Experience , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . 24 24 26 Songs of Innocence and of Experience , title page , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . 28 The Ghost ...
... Experience , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . 24 24 26 Songs of Innocence and of Experience , title page , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . 28 The Ghost ...
Page 8
... Experience , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . Illustrations to The Poems of Thomas Gray , 1797-98 . Elegy Written in a Country Church - Yard , design no . 4. By permission of the Yale Center for ...
... Experience , 1794. By permission of the Huntington Library , San Marino , California . Illustrations to The Poems of Thomas Gray , 1797-98 . Elegy Written in a Country Church - Yard , design no . 4. By permission of the Yale Center for ...
Page 13
... Experience , most of Blake's works have eluded this cultural process , however , and proven to be remarkably resis- tant to assimilation . To most readers , his prophecies are as anoma- lous today as they were when he created them ...
... Experience , most of Blake's works have eluded this cultural process , however , and proven to be remarkably resis- tant to assimilation . To most readers , his prophecies are as anoma- lous today as they were when he created them ...
Page 16
... experiences raised many an eigh- teenth - century eyebrow , they were not singular occurrences . Thompson notes that it was not uncommon in that period for men and women " simple and low in the world " to claim mystical experi- ences ...
... experiences raised many an eigh- teenth - century eyebrow , they were not singular occurrences . Thompson notes that it was not uncommon in that period for men and women " simple and low in the world " to claim mystical experi- ences ...
Page 17
... experiences exceeds biblical descriptions and thus leaves much of his activity in this area with- out cultural precedent . In Blake's mind , the artist and the spiritualist coexist on a con- tinuum . Hence , spiritualism for him is not ...
... experiences exceeds biblical descriptions and thus leaves much of his activity in this area with- out cultural precedent . In Blake's mind , the artist and the spiritualist coexist on a con- tinuum . Hence , spiritualism for him is not ...
Contents
Border Skirmishes in Blakes WordImage Art | 21 |
Urizen Milton and the Problem of Forged Identity | 59 |
Disappearing Boundaries in Prophetic Geography America Europe Jerusalem | 99 |
Eluding the Border Patrol through Transparent Art | 138 |
Notes | 164 |
171 | |
175 | |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Albion America analogical language angels appears argues artistic attempts Bible biblical Blake challenges Blake shows Blake writes Book of Job Book of Thel Book of Urizen boundaries British Museum chapter character cloud creates creation creator death deconstruction Derrida describes discourse divine Donald Ault E. P. Thompson earlier Eternity figures fire Four Zoas frame function Genesis graphic guage Heaven Heidegger Hell human Huntington Library illuminated Imagination Jacques Derrida Jerome McGann Jerusalem Jesus Job's Lamb Language of Adam linguistic literal Logos metaphor Milton mode narrative nature noted Palamabron Paul permission plate poem poet poetic poetry Princeton University Press prophetic reader reading relationship reveals rhetorical Robert Essick San Marino Satan semantic signifiers signs Songs of Innocence speech spirit stanza Sublime suggests tautology text and design textual Thel thing thou thought tion tongue translation tyger verbal verse visionary visual voice William Blake Wittreich word-image art words York