Incorporating the most recent discoveries concerning Blake’s heritage and cultural context, Visionary Materialism in the Early Works of William Blake: The Intersection of Enthusiasm and Empiricism proposes a radical new reading of his early works, that sees them taking enlightenment ideas to heights never dreamed of by Locke and Priestley. Drawing on a careful analysis of key figures from both sides of the enlightenment/counter-enlightenment divide (including Boehme, Swedenborg, the Moravians, Lavater, Brothers, Erasmus Darwin), the discussion traces an alternative tradition that disrupts previous assumptions about important aspects of Blake’s thought.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements- A Note on Texts and Illustrations Introduction: Blake and his Traditions PART 1: EXPERIENCES OF EMPIRICISM Blake and Locke: Friendship and Enmity Closet and Cavern Priestley and the Material Soul PART 2: THE TREE OF MYSTERY Obscurity and the Sublime Infinity: Causes and Consequences The Corporealisation of Thought ‘Surgeing Sulphureous Fluid’: The Case of Urizen PART 3: RIGHT REASON AND ‘SENSE SUPERNATURAL’ ‘Where Else is Heaven’: The Ranting Impulse and Inner Light The Spiritual Substance The Abyssal Eye PART 4: THE OPENING EYE ‘He Conversed with Angels’ Divine Vision as Political Force PART 5: THE ARK OF GOD ‘What is Man!’ The First Principle Perception, Liberty and Organic Light The Bounding Line Outlining the Vessels of Eternity PART 6: THE SUBLIME ACT Incarnations and Inheritance Index
About the author
Matthew J.A. Green is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nottingham.
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