Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta tese de doutorado propõe analisar a origem e a interpretação dos livros iluminados de William Blake. A produção do artista foi efetuada como um empreendimento técnico no qual texto e imagem eram gravados numa mesma chapa de impressão, para depois resultarem em diversas cópias impressas e finalizadas com aquarela. A fim de mapear as experimentações que culminaram na técnica de impressão iluminada, o primeiro capítulo discute a formação tripla de Blake como gravurista, poeta e pintor. O segundo analisa o poema narrativo e as ilustrações para Tiriel, livro que evidencia o primeiro esforço de Blake em unir texto e imagem. O terceiro, além de detalhar o método iluminado de impressão, discute o contexto de produção e as possíveis metas do seu autor ao empreender tal arte. O interlúdio apresenta uma discussão metodológica sobre o tipo de análise e conceituação crítica para o estudo de sua arte. Partindo dessa proposta, os capítulos seguintes objetivam uma interpretação dos primeiros livros iluminados de Blake. Os capítulos 4 e 5 discutem as Canções de Inocência e as Canções de Experiência, ao passo que o último se debruça sobre O Matrimônio de Céu e Inferno. Tais capítulos demonstram como, na criação do artista, texto e imagem mantêm uma dialógica relação de oposição e complementaridade que revela a meta do autor de fragilizar o discurso dualista de seu tempo, seja ele científico ou religioso, ao propor uma arte centrada na união de percepções físicas e mentais, visuais e textuais. O recorte metodológico prioriza na primeira parte desta tese uma discussão sobre o contexto cultural da arte de Blake e na segunda uma análise dos processos de leitura, observação e interpretação de seus livros. / Esta tese de doutorado propõe analisar a origem e a interpretação dos livros iluminados de William Blake. A produção do artista foi efetuada como um empreendimento técnico no qual texto e imagem eram gravados numa mesma chapa de impressão, para depois resultarem em diversas cópias impressas e finalizadas com aquarela. A fim de mapear as experimentações que culminaram na técnica de impressão iluminada, o primeiro capítulo discute a formação tripla de Blake como gravurista, poeta e pintor. O segundo analisa o poema narrativo e as ilustrações para Tiriel, livro que evidencia o primeiro esforço de Blake em unir texto e imagem. O terceiro, além de detalhar o método iluminado de impressão, discute o contexto de produção e as possíveis metas do seu autor ao empreender tal arte. O interlúdio apresenta uma discussão metodológica sobre o tipo de análise e conceituação crítica para o estudo de sua arte. Partindo dessa proposta, os capítulos seguintes objetivam uma interpretação dos primeiros livros iluminados de Blake. Os capítulos 4 e 5 discutem as Canções de Inocência e as Canções de Experiência, ao passo que o último se debruça sobre O Matrimônio de Céu e Inferno. Tais capítulos demonstram como, na criação do artista, texto e imagem mantêm uma dialógica relação de oposição e complementaridade que revela a meta do autor de fragilizar o discurso dualista de seu tempo, seja ele científico ou religioso, ao propor uma arte centrada na união de percepções físicas e mentais, visuais e textuais. O recorte metodológico prioriza na primeira parte desta tese uma discussão sobre o contexto cultural da arte de Blake e na segunda uma análise dos processos de leitura, observação e interpretação de seus livros.

In Songs of Innocence and of Experience William Blake contrasts childhood and adulthood. This essay relates this to another prominent social issue in the collection, colonialism. This essay aims at answering the question of what happens when the child is black rather than white. By providing an analysis of how children in general are portrayed, followed up with a brief discussion of how Blake deals with colonial issues this essay sets the stage for a final concluding discussion about what happens when the two themes of childhood and colonialism meet. The discussion reveals that Blake is using irony to ridicule the contemporary polarized meanings of the words “black” and “white”. By doing this Blake makes the little black boy in “The Little Black Boy” the perfect symbol for criticising the contemporary issues of child abuse and colonialism in one single piece of poetry. / I Songs of Innocence and of Experience visar William Blake på motsättningarna mellan barndom och de vuxnas värld. Denna uppsats kopplar detta tema till kolonialism, en annan framstående social fråga som behandlas i diktsamlingen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att besvara frågan om vad skillnaden blir när det är ett svart barn istället för ett vitt som framställs i dikterna. Genom att först analysera hur barn i allmänhet framställs, följt av en kort diskussion om hur Blake hanterar problemet med kolonialismen leder denna uppsats fram till en avslutande diskussion kring vad som händer när två stora teman som barndom och kolonialism möts. Den avslutande diskussionen framhäver att genom Blakes användande av ironi så gör han den samtida polariseringen av orden ”svart” och ”vit” till åtlöje. Den svarta pojken i ”The Little Black Boy” blir Blakes perfekta symbol för att kritisera de samtida frågorna kring barns utsatthet och kolonialism i en och samma dikt.

Depuis Platon, la métaphysique est empreinte de la valorisation hiérarchique entre la pensée rationnelle du logos et la pensée esthétique et relationnelle du mythos, par laquelle l’absolu et l’éternel ne peuvent être réellement connus que par le logos. Le mythos, sous-tendant les écrits sacrés et mythologiques, devient l’autre de la raison, relégué dans le domaine de l’irrationnel, voire, de la folie. La hiérarchie de valeurs, fermement établie après le progrès des lumières, crée une division au sein de l’individu qui forme la blessure au cœur de l’imaginaire occidental. C’est cette blessure que la poésie prophétique de William Blake et Friedrich Hölderlin, taxés de folie, cherche à guérir en dépeignant une manière de voir pour surmonter cet état divisé ainsi que la pensée strictement représentative et déterminante qui l’aggrave. Blake et Hölderlin s’efforcent de transformer l’imaginaire collectif issu des mythes qui ont un rôle majeur dans la formation de la perception de l’homme occidental et dont les interprétations ont servi à inculquer la vision de l’être divisé. Ils déforment et remodèlent les images mythiques et métaphoriques des concepts ontologiques devenues figées dans les traditions grecques et judéo-chrétiennes afin de rétablir l’unité de l’homme, mission prophétique qui implique la transformation de la connaissance fixe en reconnaissance active, créant la possibilité de faire évoluer la conscience individuelle et, à son tour, la conscience collective. / From the time of Plato, metaphysics has been marked by the hierarchical relationship which privileges the rational mode of thought of logos over that of the aesthetic and relational mode of mythos, whereby the absolute and the eternal are only knowable through logos. Mythos, underpinning sacred and mythological texts, becomes the other of reason, relegated to the domain of the irrational and even to that of madness. This hierarchy, firmly established after the progress of the Enlightenment, creates a division within the individual that forms the wound at the heart of the occidental imagination. It is this wound that the prophetic poetry of William Blake and Friedrich Hölderlin, both thought to be mad, seeks to heal by depicting a way of seeing in order to overcome this divided state as well as the strictly representative and determinative thinking which deepens it. Blake and Hölderlin strive to transform this perception of the individual which is reinforced by the myths that form the collective imagination, the interpretations of which have inculcated the view of the divided self. The two poets reimagine and recreate the mythical and metaphorical images of ontological concepts which have become solidified in the Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions in order to reestablish the unity of the individual, a prophetic mission that implies the transformation of fixed knowledge into active recognition, creating the possibility for the evolution of the individual and, in turn, collective conscience.

In my thesis, I explore William Blake's technique of combining word and image in his practice of engraving. The unity of text and image is deeply related to his unique mythology and concept of infinity. Blake's artistic theories and practices, such as his emphasis on the line as the most essential artistic element, are reflective of his understanding of art in relation to human perception and imagination. The interaction of his words and images provides a space of imaginative engagement for the reader, which opens the doors of perception and creates the possibility of revealing infinity.

This study suggests that Blake’s works can be understood as ‘conversion works,’ which seek to facilitate a broadly defined perceptual, spiritual, and intellectual conversion in the reader/viewer. This conversion is manifested in various ways in the texts, images, narrative structures, and style of Blake’s works. Part I discusses the genesis of the narrative of Blake’s own conversion and introduces critical discussions of the conversion narrative as a genre, showing how the predominant interpretative paradigm of the conversion narrative (as an autobiographical reportage describing a one-off experience) is challenged by the shapes that conversion narratives have taken throughout history, suggesting a broader definition of conversion literature. In Part II, I analyze Blake’s depictions of Christ in his illustrations to Night Thoughts in relation to eighteenth-century Moravian art, and the way in which they are later used in The Four Zoas. I discuss how Milton can be understood as a multilayered conversion narrative, how the manifestation of conversion in Jakob Boehme’s works might have influenced it, and how a related conversion is manifested in Jerusalem (1804-20). Finally, I show how Blake represents conversion in his illustrations to Pilgrim’s Progress and the Book of Job, emphasizing the importance of vision and the inclusion of protagonist and viewer in the divine body. Together, these analyses show conversion as a gradually developing presence in Blake’s works, exploring the conversion moment as a way into the shared salvific space of the body of Christ for fictive characters, author, and reader or viewer together.

William Blake's prophetic works are made up almost entirely of a unique combination of symbols and imagery. To understand his books it is necessary to be aware that he used his prophetic symbols because he found them apt to what he was saying, and that he changed their meanings as the reasons for their aptness changed. An awareness of this manipulation of symbols will lead to a more perceptive understanding of Blake's work. This paper is concerned with three specific uses of serpent imagery by Blake. The first chapter deals with the serpent of selfhood. Blake uses the wingless Uraeon to depict man destroying himself through his own constrictive analytic reasonings unenlightened with divine vision. Man had once possessed this divine vision, but as formal religions and a priestly class began to be formed, he lost it and worshipped only reason and cruelty. Blake also uses the image of the serpent crown to characterize priests or anyone in a position of authority. He usually mocks both religious and temporal rulers and identifies them as oppressors rather than leaders of the people. In addition to the Uraeon and the serpent crown, Blake also uses the narrow constricted body of the serpent and the encircled serpent to represent narrowmindedness and selfish possessiveness. The second chapter deals with the serpent as a symbolic force of energy itself. Blake uses the serpent to represent birth, the life force, guardian of life forces, inner strength, resurrection, forces of destruction, and rebellion against tyranny. The Orc figure, a mythological creation of Blake, is the major representative of all phases of energy. He is a Promethean figure of rebellion and often described by Blake as having a "serpent body." His birth represents the awakening of a terrible, uncontrolled energy which will bring war, destruction, and death. He is an "eternal viper" with "ever-hissing jaws." Blake often uses this rebellious energy to deal with specific political issues in America, Ahania and Tiriel. The "serpent-formed transgressor of God's law" is also in rebellion against the binding, constricting laws of religion, and in a larger sense, against the visionless state into which mankind has fallen. The third chapter considers Blake's use of the serpent and tree image. It is significant that he uses these familiar Christian symbols in various ways which suggest that occult lore and antiquarian mythologies must also be considered in their interpretation. The following five major types of serpent-tree symbolism and Blake's usages are discussed in this chapter: The divine serpent and the tree of life, the serpent as guardian of the tree of life, the serpent as destroyer of the tree of life, the serpent-tempter and the tree of death, and the serpent as an unfaithful messenger of God. It is possible to draw all of these interpretations from Blake's works. By the very diversity of its symbolic associations the serpent provides a unifying factor in Blake. It is in itself a symbol of unity in that it appears consistently in almost all of man's religions and mythologies.

The diploma thesis "Imagination in William Blake´s work and illustrations (work on paper underlay)" is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part aims to study the life and work of the world known artist William Blake, make deeper analysis of his work and imagination. Professional thesis from theorists who dealt with with the work of William Blake will be presented. This theoretical part is important for creation of the second part. The primary goal of the practical part is to make the concept of the author's book, which is inspired by the work of William Blake and is entitled "Tribute to William Blake".

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:30:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrezza Christina Ferreira Rodrigues.pdf: 16964881 bytes, checksum: ff278138157e15f045182af60ec4fe85 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study analyzes the major works of William Blake, showing his tendency to create a mythology of its own, based on Judeo-Christian mythology that ran through his visual and poetic work. In this sense, his work can be understood as mythological, inserted in the representations of English romanticism. It can see how these peculiarities inherent to its formation as a poet and illustrator as well as influential graphic arts indirectly and occultism of his age directly / Este trabalho faz uma análise das principais obras de William Blake, evidenciando sua tendência à constituir uma mitologia própria, baseada na mitologia judaico-cristã, que percorreu todo seu trabalho visual e poético. Nesse sentido, seu trabalho pode ser compreendido como mitológico, inserido nas representações do romantismo inglês. Pode-se perceber essas particularidades como inerentes a sua formação como poeta e ilustrador e também como influenciador indireto das artes gráficas e direto do ocultismo de sua época

A study of Gothic influences and eidetic imagery evident in eight Blake color plates to demonstrate that, when interpreted together with key Blake poems, unity of body and soul can be accomplished by means of the visionary imagination.

This thesis examines the influence of the abolition debates on two of William Blake’s early writings, “The Little Black Boy” and The Visions of the Daughters of Albion. It also considers Blake’s engravings for John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam as proof of his abolitionist interest. Chapter one provides an overview of current Romantic criticism which situates Blake and other Romantic writers within a historical context. Chapter two summarizes the abolition movement in the late eighteenth century. Chapters three, four and five specifically discuss Blake’s work as abolitionist in intent.