Dangerous Enthusiasm: William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s [Hardcover]

Jon Mee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0198122268 | ISBN-13: 978-0198122265

William Blake's work presents a stern challenge to historical criticism. Jon Mee's new study meets that challenge by investigating contexts outside the domain of standard literary histories. He traces the distinctive rhetoric of the illuminated books to the French Revolution controversy of the 1790s and Blake's fusion of the diverse currents of radicalism abroad in that decade. Dangerous Enthusiasm presents a more comprehensively politicized picture of Blake than any previous study. It is supported by a wealth of original research which will be of interest to historians and literary critics alike. Blake emerges from these pages as a "bricoleur" who fused the language of London's popular dissenting culture with the more skeptical radicalism of the Enlightenment. His prophetic books are shown to be less the expressions of isolated genius than the products of a complex response to the cultural politics of his contemporaries.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mee's study is impressive....Mee's accumulation of materials is compelling....The way Mee's study amasses disparate textual materials, opens up Blake's intellectual concerns to the world around him, and brings his poetic out of political and social isolation is brilliant."--Studies in Romanticism

"Mee's study is one of the most successful we have to date. He elegantly paces Blake's poetry and designs within late eighteenth-century radical culture, but eschews any attempt to fix Blake's art to precise historical moments."--Literature and History

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Jon Mee, Lecturer in the Department of English, Australian National University. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 10, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198122268
• ISBN-13: 978-0198122265
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,598,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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