Blake, Nation and Empire
Contributors: David Worrall (Editor); Steve Clark (Editor)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: December 12, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780333993149
Subjects: Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries; Poetry & poets: 16th to 18th centuries; Blake, William, 1757-1827; Literary Criticism; Literature - Classics / Criticism; English; Literature: Classics; British Isles; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Collections / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; 18th century; 19th century; Great Britain; History; History and criticism; Nationalism and literature; Political poetry, English
Description: Blake, Nation and Empire challenges the orthodoxy of the politics of William Blake as exclusively radical, defined by his participation in the revolutionary ferment of the 1790s. It examines his work in the context of emergent discourses of nation and empire, and of the construction of a public sphere, and restores the longevity to his artistic career by placing particular emphasis on his output in the 1820s. Relevant contexts include technology, sentimentalism, Ireland and Catholic Emancipation, missionary prospectuses and body politics. Blake's work is shown not only to be complexly embedded in the culture of his time but also to prefigure and contest the imperial century of pax Britannica. This exciting and timely new volume brings together scholars at the forefront of Romantic and Blake studies, and helps further the interactions between the private vision and the public discourses of nation and empire.