Reading William Blake [Hardcover]

William Blake's illuminated poems challenge their readers to participate fully in a highly interactive process of reading. The complex interaction of their verbal and visual texts forces the involved reader to assume greater responsibility than usual for formulating meaning. This book examines some of the ways in which Blake's illuminated poems subvert the customary authority of texts and force readers to reassess both their expectations about reading and their customary responses to words and visual images alike.Preface - List of Illustrations - Key to Abbreviations - A Note on Copies - Introduction: Reading Blake's Texts - Songs of Innocence and Experience - Three Early Illuminated Works - Lambeth Prophecies I: History of the World - Lambeth Phrophecies II: History of the Universe - Epic Art: Milton and Jerusalem - Notes - IndexSTEPHEN C. BEHRENDT