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Blake´s Drama challenges conventional views of William Blake´s multimedia work by reinterpreting it as theatrical performance. Viewed in its dramatic contexts, this art form is shown to provoke an active spectatorship and to depict identity as paradoxically essential and constructed, revealing Blake´s investments in drama, action, and the body.

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List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Theatre of the Illuminated Books 2. Spectatorial Entrances: Where Brechtian Alienation Meets Medieval Presence 3. Staging Urizen: The Melodrama of Identity Formation 4. The Performativity of Inspiration: Action and Identity in Milton Conclusion Bibliography Index

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"This book will change the way we think about Blake. Diane Piccitto shows what happens when Blake´s own vivid concept of ´Visionary Forms Dramatic´ is taken seriously. She applies the idea of drama to Blake´s illuminated books both historically and conceptually, drawing equal insight from the context of late eighteenth-century theatre and more unexpected comparisons such as the theories of Brecht and Stanislavsky, and the dramatic basis of Althusser´s concept of interpellation. The interpretive results are impressive, especially in combination with Piccitto´s own bright constellations of close reading. Her daring yet well founded arguments offer rich food for thought not only for Blakeans but also for those interested in the ongoing redefinition of Romantic drama, as well as larger issues of performance and identity, reader response, and the interactions of image and text." Tristanne Connolly, University of Waterloo, Canada

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Diane Piccitto holds a PhD from the University of Western Ontario. Before moving to London, UK, as an independent scholar, she was a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Zurich.

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