English 24

Other Readings and Media

Blake, W.: Songs of Innocence and of Experience, ed. Geoffrey Keynes

Description

"In recent years the study of William Blake has come to concentrate more and more upon what has been called his composite art--the union of text and image that characterized Blake's work in illuminated printing. In this seminar we'll study the interactions of words and images in Blake's most accessible book: the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The seminar will meet in the Stone Room of the Bancroft Library so that we can make use of the library's extensive collection of Blake facsimiles and also look at some original Blake engravings. We'll also be able to use an invaluable research tool on the World Wide Web: the William Blake Archive.



In order to fulfill the seminar requirements you need to do the following: 1) Register in advance as a Bancroft Library reader. (This takes only a few moments, but if everybody waits until just before our first meeting, we'll lose a lot of time). 2) Obtain the text--it will be at the customary bookstores, or you can get it at amazon.com--and bring it to each seminar meeting so we can study it together closely and compare it with facsimiles of other copies. 3) Come regularly to seminar meetings and participate in discussion. 4) Write an essay on some aspect of our subject, due at our next-to-the-last meeting.



Our subject for the first meeting is plates 1-4, 12, 19, 28, 29, 33, and 37. Please study these with the editorial notes, and read the editor's introduction as well. "