This book is an inquiry into whether what Blake called his ‘visions’ can be attributed to recognizable perceptual phenomena. The conditions identified include visual hallucinations (some derived from migraine aura), and auditory and visual hallucinations derived from several types of synaesthesia. Over a long period of time, Blake has been celebrated as a ‘visionary, ’ yet his ‘visions’ have not been discussed. Worrall draws on an understanding of neuroscience to examine both Blake’s visual art and writings, and discusses the lack of evidence pointing towards psychosis or pathological ill-health, thus questioning the rumours pertaining to Blake’s insanity.
Table of Content
Introduction.- CHAPTER ONE: The Physiology of Blake’s Hallucinations.- CHAPTER TWO: Perceiving More Than Perception.- CHAPTER THREE: Klüver Form-Constant Visual Hallucinations.- CHAPTER FOUR: Agents Inducing Klüver Visual Hallucinations- CHAPTER FIVE: Blake’s Synaesthesia.- CHAPTER SIX: Blake’s Synaesthesia II: The Visionary Heads.- CHAPTER SEVEN: Blake’s Synaesthesia III: the Testimony of Crabb Robinson.- CHAPTER EIGHT: Discussion and Conclusion.
About the author
David Worrall is Emeritus Professor of English at Nottingham Trent University. He has published widely on both William Blake and Eighteenth-Century Theatre.
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