ENG 439: William Blake Spring 2011 W 6:00-9:15
Richard Squibbs McGaw 232 (773-325-7657) Office hours: Mon 1:30-2:30; Wed 5:00-6:00 & by appt. Email: [email protected]
Required texts: The Early Illuminated Books (ISBN: 9780691001470) Songs of Innocence (ISBN: 9780486227641) Songs of Experience (ISBN: 9780486246369) America: A Prophecy & Europe: A Prophecy (ISBN: 9780486245485) The Book of Urizen (ISBN: 9780486298016)
Course requirements: One 5-8 page essay (w/two secondary sources); one 3-page research essay proposal & 8-item annotated bibliography; final 10-20 page research essay. The essays together count for 4/5 of your final grade; the bibliography counts for 1/5 of your final grade.
This is a seminar-style course, which means that regular and active participation in discussion is crucial. You are allowed one absence without penalty; after that, each absence will proportionately lower your final grade for the course.
Schedule of Readings
Wed 3/30 Introduction Revelation ; There Is No Natural Religion I & II; All Religions Are One
Wed 4/6 Songs of Innocence
Wed 4/13 Book of Thel Lecture: Prophecy ( Isaiah , Ezekiel , Daniel)
Wed 4/20 Marriage of Heaven and Hell Lecture: Theosophy ( Swedenborg , Boehme )
Wed 4/27 Visions of the Daughters of Albion [Essay #1 due]
Wed 5/4 America: A Prophecy Lecture: The American and French Revolutions & republican art
Wed 5/11 America: A Prophecy ; Europe: A Prophecy
**[3-page proposal due w/annotated bibliography due via email by Fri 5/13]**
Wed 5/18 Songs of Experience
Wed 5/25 The Book of Urizen & Genesis
Wed 6/1 open day
Final essay due Wednesday 6/8 in my mailbox in McGaw 232 by 6:00pm
Preliminary Bibliography
(titles in boldface are available in the Richardson library)
Ackroyd, Peter. Blake: A Biography . New York: Knopf, 1996.
Adams, Hazard, ed. Critical Essays on William Blake . Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991.
---. William Blake: A Reading of the Shorter Poems . Seattle: U of Washington P, 1963.
Beer, John. William Blake, 1757-1827 . Windsor: Profile Books, 1982.
Bentley, G. E. Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake . New Haven: Yale UP, 2001.
Bloom, Harold. Blake’s Apocalypse: A Study in Poetic Argument . Garden City: Anchor Books, 1965.
---., ed. William Blake . New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.
Bronowski, J. William Blake and the Age of Revolution . New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake . Providence: Brown UP, 1965.
Davis, Michael. William Blake: A New Kind of Man . Berkeley: U of California P, 1977.
DiSalvo, Jackie, G. A. Rosso, and Christopher Z. Hobson, eds. Blake, Politics, and History . New York: Garland, 1998.
Eaves, Morris. The Cambridge Companion to William Blake . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.
Erdman, David V. Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet’s Interpretation of the History of His Own Times . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1954.
Erdman, David V. and John E. Grant, eds. Blake’s Visionary Forms Dramatic . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970.
Essick, Robert N. William Blake, Printmaker . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980.
---., and Donald Pearce, eds. Blake in His Time . Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978.
Ferber, Michael. The Social Vision of William Blake . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1985.
Frye, Northrop, ed. Blake: A Collection of Critical Essays . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1966.
---. Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake . Boston: Beacon Press, 1962.
---., ed. Valley of Vision: Blake as Prophet and Revolutionary . Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1961.
Gleckner, Robert F. The Piper and the Bard: A Study of William Blake . Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1959.
Gourlay, Alexander, ed. Prophetic Character: Essays on William Blake in Honor of John E. Grant . West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 2002.
Hagstrum, Jean H. William Blake, Poet and Painter: An Introduction to the Illuminated Verse . Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1964.
Hamlyn, Robyn and Michael Phillips. William Blake . New York: Henry M. Abrams, 2001.
Heppner, Christopher. Reading Blake’s Designs . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.
Hirsch, E. D. Innocence and Experience: An Introduction to Blake . New Haven: Yale UP, 1964.
Mee, Jon. Dangerous Enthusiasm: William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s . Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.
Mitchell, W. J. T. Blake’s Composite Art: A Study of the Illuminated Poetry . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978.
Phillips, Michael, ed.. Interpreting Blake: Essays . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1978.
Plowman, Max. Introduction to the Study of Blake . New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967.
Schorer, Mark. William Blake: The Politics of Vision . New York: Vintage Books, 1959.
Tannenbaum, Leslie. Biblical Tradition in Blake’s Early Prophecies: The Great Code of Art . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1982.
Thompson, E. P. Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law . New York: The New Press, 1993.
Viscomi, Joseph. Blake and the Idea of the Book . Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993.