William Blake, Ancient of Days
Entrance to the GE Building in NYC
For next Tuesday (4/23), students will post the revised introduction to their research paper, with title and thesis statement. [Introductions copied and pasted from the first essay will not be accepted]
This assignment will be graded like a blog post. Please categorize under “Research Paper” and include relevant tags. Write your full name. The assignment is due by next Tuesday, 4/23, at 2:30pm
When observing the sexual nature of relationships between men and women throughout Blake’s poetry, the concepts that are recurring the most would be: anonymity of one’s own sexuality, violence, rape, control, and power struggles. In this paper, these themes will be explored in two similar, yet at the same time, distinctive sections that examine the sexual androgyny/anonymity of the sexual identity of women and men in Blake’s: The Visions of the Daughters of Albion as well as the nature in children’s androgynous identities as they appear in Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow from Blake’s: Songs of Innocence & Experience. The first section of this research yields its significance in highlighting specific places where the female characters in Blake’s Daughters of Albion are figuring out their own sexual identities, but are thwarted by the men, forcing them in roles of slavery and manipulated into believing certain ideologies that in most cases, are not their own. Through the second section, these female and male characters that were examined in the first section are compared to those of the children in “Infant Joy & Infant Sorrow” where the treatment of both parents differs enormously both in nurture and nature. By cross-examining these familial relationships that contain sexual androgynous implications, the argument lies in how much they influence the gender identities of women and children throughout Blake’s poems.
– Genesis Jimenez
The world of children’s literature owes much to two influential writers from different eras: William Blake and Lewis Carroll. Despite living in separate times, both focused on childhood and the imagination in profound ways. They may have had different ideas about innocence and experience, but they both emphasized the importance of nurturing imagination in children.During the “golden age” of children’s literature, which began with William Blake, a new genre emerged that catered specifically to young readers. Blake’s poetry collection, “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” was groundbreaking. It explored themes of childhood, imagination, and education, setting the stage for future writers to dive into these topics. Lewis Carroll, inspired by Blake’s work, created the beloved story “Alice in Wonderland.” In this whimsical tale, Carroll delved into the wonder and curiosity of childhood. His unique take on innocence and experience, influenced by Blake’s ideas, adds depth to the discussion of how children perceive the world.
In this paper, we’ll compare Blake and Carroll’s views on preserving imagination, understanding innocence, and shaping children’s education. By doing so, we’ll uncover how their ideas shaped the development of a whole new genre of literature aimed at children, highlighting the lasting impact of their work on our understanding of childhood and creativity.
-Alondra Garcia
Reader-response theory is a fundamentally sound theory of literary analysis that has inevitably become ineffective due to the passage of time, which has led to shifting trends in publishing, authorship, and audiences over time. At its core the theory suggests that a text’s meaning is derived from a reader or audience’s interpretation of it, drawing a clear divide between authorial. But Reader-response theory was developed in the mid to late 1960’s and is nearly six decades removed from a modern context. The publication industry, ways authors are able to interact with their audience, and simply the needs and wants of audiences are so drastically different that any theory hoping to derive meaning from a work must be adapted to consider this new context. To demonstrate just how different the publishing and author experience is in a modern context I will focus on Brandon Sanderson, a fiction author that exemplifies the changes to the industry on multiple fronts. In particular I will focus on audience interaction and publication changes caused by both social and technological changes. I will focus on addressing these concepts through the lens of Sanderson as a modern author including how he interacts with, takes criticism from and tailors his works to the needs of his audience.
-Tanner Fleckenstein
Irish playwright Samuel Beckett pioneered the postmodern drama movement known as the “theatre of the absurd”, which was characterized by existentialist overtones, absurd dialogue and an alienated audience who struggled to fully understand the characters they were watching on stage. His landmark 1954 play Waiting for Godot is a staple of this movement, with the two main characters struggling to find meaning within themselves and move their own plot forward. Over 50 years later, Irish playwright-turned-screenwriter Martin McDonagh released his 2008 film In Bruges, which, although being marketed as a crime comedy thriller, used the very same dramatic techniques that Beckett pioneered for the stage. McDonagh’s film subverts audience expectations using cleverly terse dialogue, well-crafted moments of irony, and even inserting self-awareness into the characters themselves. Rather than alienating and confusing his audiences with a liberal blend of comedic dialogue and unsettling violence, McDonagh reinterprets the subversive storytelling methods that Beckett used and crafts In Bruges as a digestible, enjoyable and equivocal 21st century reimagining of 20th century postmodern absurdist theatre.
William Blake etched his way through life attempting to understand the human condition while simultaneously creating engraving storylines of new worlds. Preserving the innocence and humanity of people without the corruption of the institutionalized power structures is a concept in Blake’s works. The allegorical elements in Blake’s oeuvre transcends traditional symbolisms, which allows readers to analyze for example, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, published in 1793, in a “rebellious” way and reflect male oppression on women. In this period, the Americas and Europe enslaved Africans for profit, dominating the development of the economy through violence. In the Visions of the Daughters of Albion, Oothoon’s character is an allegory of racialized sexual exploitation of African enslaved women to criticize patriarchal oppression of American colonization and gender identity, simultaneously praising sensual energy without constraint of any church.
In the 19th century, King Henry XIII was a devout Catholic making Catholicism the main religion in England. That was until he decided to break from the church to be able to divorce his wife and remarry. In doing so he made himself the supreme head of the Church of England and established Anglicanism as the official religion/church of England. William Blake is a non-conforming Christian, one can believe in a God and not follow official church doctrine, or in other words be non-orthodox. Blake was not popular at his time, and most of his work did not get the attention it receives now, but throughout his work, he displayed the hold of his faith close to him and how the Anglican church was wrong or misleading. Now, Blake is a renowned English poet and is most known for his challenging to interpret works that go against conventional notions of religion, in this case Christianity, while advocating for his idea of spiritual vision, or poetic genius. Blake shows a connection to Taoism, also spelled Daoism. Taoism can be traced back to ancient China during the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Taoist philosophy emphasizes principles such as spontaneity, simplicity, harmony with nature, and the importance of inner peace. Philosophers named Laozi and Zhuangzi are credited with laying down the foundation of Taoist beliefs. William Blake’s literary works and artistic expressions throughout his work, such as “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, “The Book of Urizen”, and other illuminated poems and artistic pictures, show a profound connection and his philosophical resonance to Taoist principles or ideas, with the themes of harmony, balance, and the connection of contraries.
-Jasmin Guerra
In William Blake’s literary works he offers a vast amount of perspectives, philosophies, and topics. Though the most prominent have got to be his contraries and oppositions in the works The Songs of Innocence and Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In these works where he delves deeper into the juxtapositions in the human world as well as the divine. Blake’s decision to have his work revolve around this is voluntary and premeditated. He undoubtedly does this to not only try and abolish the rigid dichotomies in the given topics but to also create a unity that contains the totality of human experiences and spiritual evolution. Through the lens of the Yin and Yang ancient Chinese Philosophy we are able to gain a deeper understanding as to why contraries and oppositions are so crucial and important in not only literature but the real world as well.
-Valeria Valdez
William Blake’s use of political allegories contains revolutionary rhetoric that challenges capitalism and traditional political structures. In response to specific political figures and events of his time, Blake’s writings and artwork convey a deep discontent for present injustices stemming from exploitation and racial inequalities which conveys a longing for a fairer society. He highlights the issues of exploitation and forced labor as a symbol of slavery by using characters like Tom Dacre and The Little Black Boy, who face starvation and death under capitalism. In William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper and The Little Black Boy, Blake exposes the exploitation of children and racial prejudice that plagues his society while also highlighting a working class revolution against government tyrants in Europe A Prophecy and Song of Los. William Blake’s use of specific characters actively rebels against the unjust system they are living in, allowing readers to freely interpret Blake’s controversial views on exploitation, racial prejudice, and working class revolution.
By Brieanna Anderson
It is easy to understand the words of prophets as a result of divine influence; that their prophecies are absolutes. Men chosen by the divine to establish inescapable tragedies and unavoidable triumphs; the divine word of God or gods. Prophets and their prophecies carry an almost authoritarian air to them; they are capable of influencing masses to behave accordingly. Whether out of fear of punishment for ignorance towards the prophecy, or a sense of duty to be prepared for it, it is undeniable that prophets and prophecies have the power to either transform or control. Furthermore, that power lies in the diction, syntax, and the three rhetorical appeals. William Blake, a poet who believed not only in the power of prophecies, but recognized poets as charged with the duty of a prophet, littered his works with prophetic language and prophecies. Some of them are applicable even in today’s current events. And yet, he made no claim of receiving any sort divine influence from God; thus, it is clear that for him, the use of prophecy and prophetic language had a different purpose. Ironically, William Blake’s use of prophetic writing was medium to encapsulate the struggle for freedom from the monolithic indoctrination of established orthodox religions and empires in a hope to reconstitute a society free from the limitations of religious and political dogma.
William Blake and Enlightenment Media 