Modern scholars often find it difficult to account for the profound eccentricities in the work of William Blake, dismissing them as either ahistorical or simply meaningless. But with this pioneering study, Saree Makdisi develops a reliable and comprehensive framework for understanding these peculiarities. According to Makdisi, Blake''s poetry and drawings should compel us to reconsider the history of the 1790s. Tracing for the first time the many links among economics, politics, and religion in his work, Makdisi shows how Blake questioned and even subverted the commercial, consumerist, and political liberties that his contemporaries championed, all while developing his own radical aesthetic.
- ISBN10 0226502619
- ISBN13 9780226502618
- Publish Date 14 May 2014 (first published 15 December 2002)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Pages 421
- Language English