Talk on 'The Female Body and Wine Cup in William Blake' is Thursday
A research presentation on "The Female Body and Wine Cup in William Blake" will be given by Dr. Young-ok An, English Department, from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Luann Dummer Center for Women, Room 103, O'Shaughnessy Educational Center.
Bring your lunch, dessert and beverages will be provided.
William Blake, 1757-1827, was a poet, designer, painter, engraver, etcher and colorist. Innovative, iconoclastic and visionary, Blake was ignored by the literary intellectual mainstream in his lifetime, only to become a major figure in both literary and art history who still is enjoyed today.
Blake's composite art has inspired, and continues to inspire, numerous writers, artists, thinkers, singer-songwriters and musicians. In this talk, An will explore one example of this composite art: the convergence of the female body and wine cup in Blake's texts, including his poetry, designs and painting.
Wine cups, some associated with female bodies, and some with serpents, recur throughout Blake's works. An will explore the trope of the female cup-holder, how it "holds" meanings in Blake's poetics and how it shifts and slides from one version to another along with the role of the gendered body.
An also will discuss Blake's illustrations of the Bible, Milton's "Comus" and "Paradise Lost," and "Night Thoughts" by Edward Young, along with Blake's own poetic texts such as "America," "Four Zoas," "Milton," and "Jerusalem."
