The Evolution of Blakes Myth [Hardcover]

Interpreting Blake has always proved challenging. Hermeneutics, as the on-going negotiation between the horizon of expectations and a given text, hinges on the preconceptions that structure thought. The structure, in turn, is derived from myth, a cultural narrative predicated on a particular set of foundational principles, and organized in terms of the resulting symbolic form. The primary impediment to interpreting Blake has been the failure to recognize that he and much of his audience have thought in terms of two radically different myths.

In The Evolution of Blakes Myth, Sheila A. Spector establishes the dimensions of the myth that structures Blakes thought. In the first of three parts, she uses Jerusalem, Blakes most complete book, as the basis for extrapolating the components of the consolidated myth. She then traces the chronological development of the myth from its origin in the late 1780s through its crystallization in Milton. Finally, she demonstrates how Blake used the myth hermeneutically, as the horizon of expectations for interpreting not only his own work, but the Bible and the visionary texts of others, as well.

Preface: Myth and Hermeneutics

Introduction: The Theory of Myth

Chapter 1. The Foundational Principles and Symbolic Form

Chapter 2. The Narrative

Chapter 3. The Foundational Principles

Chapter 4. The Symbolic Form

Chapter 5. The Narrative (1): The Logic of Complementarity

Cl#)