Blake: Between Romanticism and Modernism

Abstract

Blake is the Romantic writer who has exerted the most powerful influence on the twentieth century. Indeed, the more one looks into the matter, the more surprised one may be by the extent and pervasiveness of that influence. On the one hand, he is now regarded as one of the great canonical literary artists of the Romantic period, and he is rightly seen in relation to then current modes, such as the sublime. On the other, Blake’s popularity may have much to do with qualities that are supposed to differentiate him from other Romantics. In any case, if he were without any ado to be an example of Romantic influence, we would need a clear, essential idea of what Romanticism is — or was — and we do not. This chapter attempts to offer an account of Blake’s after-life which shows that he was central in the retrospective construction of a Romanticism that was acceptable to the twentieth century, and that this centrality is continuing into the twenty-first century. In the process, it will seek to be sensitive to the theoretical difficulties involved in describing canon formation.