ENG308Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, Free Verse, Evangelicalism
ENG308 Tuesday September 26 2017
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
-most of the form of the text is close to free verse, almost prose
-moving between lyric and prose
-aphoristic style, essayistic style
-precursor to Nietzsche’s genealogy of morals
-asking where our ideas of good and evil come from
-elements of satire:
-satire being the great genre for undercutting pretentiousness
-but it is not simply a satire, because there is a deep seriousness to what he is doing: blake
thinks he is writing something prophetic
-try to find to terms to explain
-a prophet who looks into the present to try to see what’s wrong with the present
-prophetic satire
-trying to reshape how we see the world
-rethinking categories; rethinking it’s own formal categories
-in songs of innocence and experience, blake was saying that all imaginations have to struggle
with other people’s imaginations
-a lot of this poem is a parody of other kinds of religious writing
-what’s at stake is what’s really religious: what’s the divine, what is the heavenly
-the problem of organized religion: what happens when you think you’re more religious as
someone else?
-the sociology of religion
-behind this is a very deep politic
-rethink religious to break down the political structure in England
Title page: barren trees above where the heaven is
-below, where the hell is: flames, desire
-tells us there is some relation between heaven and hell
-the purpose of the poem is to bring heaven and hell back together in some kind of unity
-but blake doesn’t believe in unities that dissolve difference: he believes in polarities and
oppositions being true friendship, the way of the universe
-perhaps at the bottom it is the body and the soul embracing
The Argument
-usurpation: the villain takes the position of the just man and drives the just man into the
wilderness
-the just man is a prophet of some kind
-in 18th C, third son of nobility were the ones who became churchmen
-Blake was associated more with evangelicalism, which was opposed to the dominant anglican
tradition
-so in this poem, one finds the prophet in the wilderness
-voice of prophet is indignant
[Plate 3]
-without contraries is no progression
-dialectical model
-thesis, antithesis, synthesis: opposing a thesis results in a higher synthesis that incorporates
the thesis and antithesis
-all dialectical thinking says you need two sides in order to get at the truth
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Most of the form of the text is close to free verse, almost prose. Asking where our ideas of good and evil come from. Satire being the great genre for undercutting pretentiousness. But it is not simply a satire, because there is a deep seriousness to what he is doing: blake thinks he is writing something prophetic. A prophet who looks into the present to try to see what"s wrong with the present. Trying to reshape how we see the world. In songs of innocence and experience, blake was saying that all imaginations have to struggle with other people"s imaginations. A lot of this poem is a parody of other kinds of religious writing. What"s at stake is what"s really religious: what"s the divine, what is the heavenly. Rethink religious to break down the political structure in england. Title page: barren trees above where the (cid:1688)heaven is(cid:1689) Tells us there is some relation between heaven and hell.
