Blake's critique of transcendence
Subtitle: love, jealousy, and the sublime in The four Zoas
By: Peter Otto.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 365
Subjects: Blake, William, 1757-1827; Transcendence (Philosophy) in literature; Sublime, The, in literature; Jealousy in literature; Love in literature
Description: "Blake's Critique of Transcendence is the most important works in Blake's oeuvre. It uncovers a Blake deeply engaged with the cultural discourses of his time, in profound dialogue with Swedenborg, Locke, and Young. In the course of this conversation, Blake anatomizes a remarkable variety of cultural practices (including religion, science, and art) designed to achieve transcendence. He focuses in particular on the fate of the body in cultures of transcendence, developing perhaps the first theory of sexual sublimation. Blake's radical visual and verbal strategies in this poem are part of an attempt to defer the movement of transcendence, long enough for the reader to see the warring elements of the fallen world as the dismembered body of humanity."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [347]-358) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: PART I. THE RHETORIC OF TRANSCENDENCE; title: 1. Blake, Blake Criticism, and the Sublime; title: 2. Rational Heavens and Carnal Hells; title: PART II. FALLING INTO A WORLD OF LOS(S); title: 3. The Birth of Los(s) from Tharmas; title: 4. Urizen's World of Los(s); title: 5. A Cacophony of Voices; title: 6. Building a Swedenborgian Heaven; title: PART III. BUILDING THE FALLEN WORLD; title: 7. The Elaboration of Los(s); title: PART IV. REASON'S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE FLESH; title: 8. Urizen Explores his Dens; title: 9. Flesh and Spirit; title: 10. A Sensitive Body; title: PART V. THE END AND BEGINNING OF HISTORY; title: 11. Death of the Body/Liberation of the Spirit; title: 12. The LastJudgement; title: Bibliography; title: Index.