Critical Paths: Blake and the Argument of Method - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822307510 ISBN 13: 9780822307518

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 1987

Synopsis

The great expositors of Blake and those who have followed in their footsteps have clarified the most minute particulars of Blake's vision. Now, in the place of traditional exegesis, comes a significantly new set of critical problems and interpretive methods. In this volume of essays, the major shift in Blake studies, already under way in practice, is addressed, gauged, analyzed, and debated.

The contributors assembled here, leading exponents of contemporary critical methods as well as close students of Blake, argue the grounds, purposes, and validity of each approach and then apply its method in detailed readings of Blake's works. We see deconstruction, psychoanalytic interpretation, feminist critique, semiotic analysis, Marxist criticism, revisionism, and other methods brought to bear on Blake's texts and into confrontation with one another by those best able to do so.

Through the essays themselves and in the reaction they will certainly provoke, Critical Paths will bring increased theoretical awareness to the study of Blake and will further the ongoing redefinition of Blake's art. At the same time, the collection investigates the general problem of methodology in literary studies by means of a casebook examination of modern critical approaches. Blake criticism and current literary theory here come together; the encounter illuminates and enriches both.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This timely collection of essays ads tot he momentum that has been building in recent years for a fresh start in Blake studies--an impulse both to cleanse the doors of perception of Blake's critics and to sweep out the interpreter's parlor in which his now-familiar body of poetry has come to reside. . . . The most appealing feature of "Critical Paths" is its spirit of exploration--its zest in challenging cherished assumptions, its impatience with questions that have been asked too often, its agile movement between skepticism and affirmation, its air of the workshop rather than the museum or the shrine."--Mary Lynn Johnson

About the Author

Rowan is based in Seattle, Washington and works as a Program Manager for the ADO.Net Entity Framework team at Microsoft. Prior to moving to the US he resided in the small state of Tasmania in Australia. Rowan speaks at technical conferences and blogs at http: //romiller.com. Outside of technology Rowan's passions include snowboarding, mountain biking, horse riding, rock climbing and pretty much anything else that involves being active. The primary focus of his life, however, is to follow Jesus.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0822307510
• ISBN 13: 9780822307518
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 394
• Editor: Miller Dan, Bracher Mark, Ault Donald