William Blake's Comic Vision

In the eighteenth century, discussions on the nature and significance of comedy formed an important part of the study of aesthetics, education, spirituality and morality. We know that William Blake was passionately engaged with such studies. We also know there is an abundance of wit and humour in his work. He even claimed that he 'loved laughing'. Yet literary criticism traditionally paints a sombre portrait of Blake. He is seen as a man for whom laughter was, at best, a crude tool for attacking the dominant ideology. At worst, it was little more than a defensive psychological twitch.
Focusing particularly on Blake's earlier works, this groundbreaking study blends a close reading of Poetical Sketches, An Island in the Moon and The Songs of Innocence and of Experience with fascinating historical research to demonstrate that comedy was an essential component of Blake's artistic Vision. Appealing to both specialist and casual reader alike, William Blake's Comic Vision shows how Blake's comic genius mixed biblical profundity, fairground hilarity, Pythonesque absurdity and Shakespearean warmth in some fascinating ways and some unexpected places.

Nick Rawlinson is Lecturer in English at Queen Mary and Westfield College at the University of London.