concise remarks on angels and devils of william bl.doc

Concise Remarks on Angels and Devils of William Blake in Songs of Innocence and Experience

【摘  要】 对立性是布莱克美学思想的重要组成部分，也是他诗歌创作风格的中心要素。本论文在探究18 世纪英国社会复杂的政治环境及思想潮流的基础上，结合布莱克传记中对其思想及经历的记录，系统地研究布莱克的对立性思想产生的根源、特点及其在布莱克早期作品的具体体现。

   以诗集《天真与经验之歌》中相同题材的“对诗”为例，探讨对立性思想在人类认识上的体现：天真与经验的对立。天真与经验代表人类认识的两种对立方向，它们的对立性体现在对自然及权威所做出的不同反应。

   布莱克是新浪漫主义文学的先驱。从布莱克的《天真之歌》等作品中，我们能够发现布莱克对自由想象的追求和对理性桎梏的排斥。布莱克毫不留情地把这现世的一切苦难归咎于抽象理性的束缚。

   以《伦敦》和《老虎》两诗为例，来寻找布莱克诗中的反叛性和革命性。在他最好的作品当中有一部分的灵感来源于法国大革命。在他生前最后一天写下的第一部传记Alexander Gilcrest 中，他将自己称为“自由之人”。布莱克最广为人知的一首诗是：《伦敦》。在这首诗当中，布莱克看似描绘着他的城市，其实讲述的是人性。布莱克对教堂雇佣天真的儿童以及身边虚伪的情爱感到非常愤怒。在伦敦，这种虚伪的情爱，让卖淫和染有性病的人走向婚姻的殿堂。但是，诗中之怒似乎比现实之怒刺得更深.

【关键词】布莱克；对立性；想象；革命性

【Abstract】 Contrariety is a very important aspect of Blake’s aesthetic thoughts, which is the central element underlying his poetry. Tracing the complex political and ideological milieu of the 18th century, as well as the biographical records of Blake’s life experience, this dissertation aims to investigate the origins and features of Blake’s notion of contrariety as well as its embodiments in his early poetry.

The embodiment of the idea of contrariety reflected in human perception: an opposition between innocence and experience, with the paired poems in Songs of Innocence and of Experience as the focus of analysis. Innocence and experience indicate opposing directions of human perception, and their opposition lies in different responses to nature and authority.

Black is a pioneer of the New Romantic Literature. From Blake's Songs of Innocence and other works, we can found that Blake’s pursuit of free imagination and exclusion of rational shackles. Black relentlessly blamed all the sufferings in that age to the abstract rational shackles. 

In third part, taking both the "London" and "Tyger" poems as example, we can find rebellion and revolutionary in Blake’s poem. Some of his best works were inspired by the French Revolution. His first biographer, Alexander Gilcrest, wrote that down to his last days Blake always avowed himself a "Liberty Boy". One of Blake's most moving and accessible poems is London. In this poem Blake describes his city, which is also a way of describing the condition of humanity. Blake shows his anger at the church which is complicit in the exploitation of children, and at the hypocrisy surrounding sexuality, where marriage goes hand in hand with prostitution and venereal diseases. But the anger of the poem cuts even deeper than that.

【Key Words】Blake; Contrariety; Imagination; Revolution 

Table of Contents

扉 页 i

Acknowledgments iii

摘 要................................................................................................................................................iv

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................iv

Chapter One   Introduction 1

1.1 Historical Background 1

1.2 Literature Characteristic 1

Chapter Two   Contrariety in Human Perception 3

Chapter Three   Angels in Imagination and Devils in Reality 5

3.1 “Angels” in Children’ s Eyes：Irony Effect 5

3.2 Darkness in Reality Even in Church 6

Chapter Four   Revolutionary and Rebellion in London 9

Chapter Five   Blake’s Imaginary World 11

5.1 Blake’s Visional World 11

5.2 Free from Shackle through Imagination 12

Bibliography 15