William Blake and the Myth of America
Tells the story of William Blake's literary reception in America from the Abolitionists to the counterculture and argues that Blake's poetry has been crucial to America's sense of itself as a mythic and prophetic nation and its struggle with the ironies of new world symbolism as a land of the free and a site of possibility and redemption.
Delivery date: Contact us by email on delivery date range
This volume tells the story of William Blake's literary reception in America, and studies its effect from the Abolitionists to the counterculture. It covers a range of forms, including prose, newspaper and periodical publication, the novel, music, theology, film, and visual art, with a special focus on American poetry. Blakean forms of bardic song, aphorism, prophecy, and lament became particularly relevant to a literary tradition which centralised the relationship between aspiration and experience. It argues that ideas about Blake's poetry and personality have been particularly important to America's sense of itself as a mythic and prophetic nation and its struggle with the ironies of new world symbolism as a land of the free and a site of possibility and redemption.
