Journal article 1364 views
'Framing Los(s): Blake, Kant, Derrida'
Steven Vine
Q/W/E/R/T/Y, Volume: 5, Pages: 119 - 127
Swansea University Author: Steven Vine
Abstract
The essay relates the troubled and rifted nature of aesthetic ‘form’ in Blake’s 'The First Book of Urizen' (1794) to Kant’s theory of the beautiful and sublime in the 'Critique of Judgement' (1790). It finds a ‘politics of form’ in Blake’s poem that repudiates the conservative im...
| Published in: | Q/W/E/R/T/Y |
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| Published: |
1995
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17977 |
| Abstract: |
The essay relates the troubled and rifted nature of aesthetic ‘form’ in Blake’s 'The First Book of Urizen' (1794) to Kant’s theory of the beautiful and sublime in the 'Critique of Judgement' (1790). It finds a ‘politics of form’ in Blake’s poem that repudiates the conservative implications of Kant’s idea of the ‘beautiful’ – as an aesthetic of harmony – and the ‘sublime’ as a principle of rational transcendence. Blake’s baleful demigod ‘Urizen’ is seen as an ideological operator of both these Kantian imperatives. In contrast, the essay argues that Blake’s poet-prophet ‘Los’ subverts Urizen’s Kantian dreams of aesthetic harmony and rational transcendence by embracing an aesthetics of ‘loss’ – one that opens itself up to the historical process, and unframes Urizen’s dreams of totalisation and stability. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
119 |
| End Page: |
127 |