Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms
Building upon critical discussions about William Blake’s ‘radical form of mixed art’ (Frye 1951), this article mobilises concepts from the field of intermedial studies to excavate Blake’s visions for liberation embedded in the hybrid verbo-visual forms of his illuminated poems. I first offer Blake’s...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Interfaces
2026
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_11604 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_11604 https://doi.org/10.4000/16ovd en https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/11604 2026-08-26T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/16ovd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms Interfaces Université Bourgogne Europe info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2647-6754 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1164-6225 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces Beckett, Lily intermédialité Blake (William) romantisme livres enluminés poésie radicale politique radicale xviiie siècle xixe siècle illuminated books Blake (William) intermediality radical poetry radical politics 18th century 19th century Romantic movement Building upon critical discussions about William Blake’s ‘radical form of mixed art’ (Frye 1951), this article mobilises concepts from the field of intermedial studies to excavate Blake’s visions for liberation embedded in the hybrid verbo-visual forms of his illuminated poems. I first offer Blake’s Laocoön (1826) as both a visual nexus for the centuries-spanning debate on poetic intermediality and a springboard for further investigating the connections between Blake’s radical politics and intermedial forms in the earlier illuminated poems. Applying an intermedial perspective to close readings of ‘London’ (1794) and ‘Jerusalem’ (1804–c. 1820), I demonstrate how the interactions between the words and images reveal visions for liberation from material conditions of struggle in Blake’s London at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout, I situate what I determine as Blake’s intermedial poetics of resistance in relation to his historical position as a working-class artisan engraver, at odds with the dominant aesthetic and political cultures of his time. S’appuyant sur les discussions critiques autour de la « forme radicale d’art mixte » de William Blake (Frye 1951), cet article mobilise des concepts issus des études intermédiales afin de mettre au jour les visions de libération que Blake inscrit au cœur des formes verbo-visuelles hybrides de ses poèmes illuminés. Dans un premier temps, j’examine Laocoön (1826) de Blake, envisagé à la fois comme un nœud visuel dans le débat pluriséculaire sur l’intermédialité poétique et comme un point de départ pour approfondir les liens entre la politique radicale de Blake et les formes intermédiales de ses premiers poèmes illuminés. En appliquant une perspective intermédiale à des lectures rapprochées de London (1794) et de Jerusalem (1804-ca 1820), je montre comment les interactions entre texte et image révèlent des visions de libération des conditions matérielles de lutte dans le Londres de Blake au tournant du xixᵉ siècle. Tout au long de l’article, je situe ce que je définis comme la poétique intermédiale de la résistance de Blake en regard de sa position historique d’artisan graveur issu des classes populaires, en tension avec les cultures esthétiques et politiques dominantes de son époque. urn:doi:10.4000/16ovd |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
intermédialité Blake (William) romantisme livres enluminés poésie radicale politique radicale xviiie siècle xixe siècle illuminated books Blake (William) intermediality radical poetry radical politics 18th century 19th century Romantic movement |
| spellingShingle |
intermédialité Blake (William) romantisme livres enluminés poésie radicale politique radicale xviiie siècle xixe siècle illuminated books Blake (William) intermediality radical poetry radical politics 18th century 19th century Romantic movement Beckett, Lily Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| description |
Building upon critical discussions about William Blake’s ‘radical form of mixed art’ (Frye 1951), this article mobilises concepts from the field of intermedial studies to excavate Blake’s visions for liberation embedded in the hybrid verbo-visual forms of his illuminated poems. I first offer Blake’s Laocoön (1826) as both a visual nexus for the centuries-spanning debate on poetic intermediality and a springboard for further investigating the connections between Blake’s radical politics and intermedial forms in the earlier illuminated poems. Applying an intermedial perspective to close readings of ‘London’ (1794) and ‘Jerusalem’ (1804–c. 1820), I demonstrate how the interactions between the words and images reveal visions for liberation from material conditions of struggle in Blake’s London at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout, I situate what I determine as Blake’s intermedial poetics of resistance in relation to his historical position as a working-class artisan engraver, at odds with the dominant aesthetic and political cultures of his time. |
| author |
Beckett, Lily |
| author_facet |
Beckett, Lily |
| author_sort |
Beckett, Lily |
| title |
Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| title_short |
Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| title_full |
Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| title_fullStr |
Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Illuminating Resistance: An Intermedial Approach to William Blake’s Hybrid Poetic Forms |
| title_sort |
illuminating resistance: an intermedial approach to william blake’s hybrid poetic forms |
| publisher |
Interfaces |
| publishDate |
2026 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/16ovd https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/11604 |
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1877291616578830336 |