Zoamorphosis: 250 Years of Blake Mutations

Whittaker, Jason (2012) Zoamorphosis: 250 Years of Blake Mutations. In: Re-Envisioning Blake. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. ISBN 978-0230275515

Abstract / Summary

This is a contributory chapter to the 250 anniversary collection celebrating the birth of William Blake. This essay is part of ongoing research into the reception of the poet and artist, providing an overview of his use in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, building on a decade's worth of work into the reception of the works of William Blake in the literary and visual arts, as well as his influence on political and cultural figures. The collection brings together some of the world's leading international scholars on Blake, offering an overview of the current state of Blake studies in the twenty-first century. Within this particular study, the focus of topic offered a study of the use of Blake by occult figures with the intention of exploring this via a materialist and new-historicist approach instead of typical studies which have tended towards a slightly uncritical response to such materials via pscychological and idealist tendencies. The importance of this particular article in terms of its inclusion with an established selection of Blake scholars was to recognise that the reception history of Blake represents an increasingly fruitful area for study.

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