Reading William Blake (Reading Writers and their Work) - Softcover

Makdisi, Saree

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521128412 ISBN 13: 9780521128414

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

William Blake (1757‒1827) is one of the most original and influential figures of the Romantic Age, known for his work as an artist, poet and printmaker. Grounding his ideas both in close reading and in the latest scholarship, Saree Makdisi offers an exciting and imaginative approach to reading Blake. By exploring some of the most important themes in Blake's work and connecting them to particular plates from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Makdisi highlights Blake's creative power and the important interplay between images and words. There is a consistent emphasis on the relationship between the material nature of Blake's illuminated books, including the method he used to produce them, and the interpretive readings of the texts themselves. Makdisi argues that the material and formal openness of Blake's work can be seen as the very basis for learning to read in the spirit of Blake.

Book Description:

Saree Makdisi offers a fresh and imaginative approach to reading William Blake, grounded in the latest research. This unique study inspires a deeper understanding of Blake's creative processes and encourages personal explorations of his work.

About the Author:

Saree Makdisi is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Making England Western (2014), Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (2010), William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s (2003), and Romantic Imperialism (Cambridge, 1998).

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0521128412
• ISBN 13: 9780521128414
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150