"Narrative Unbound" is the first full-scale interpretation of the verbal text of Blake's most complex long poetic prophecy, "The Four Zoas." Never engraved or published in the poet/artist's lifetime, the poem remains in a single manuscript, apparently unfinished and heavily revised, and yet is widely celebrated as one of Blake's most powerful narrative works. Ault challenges the view that the poem is intrinsically incomplete and flawed, arguing instead that the famous difficulties of the text are aspects of Blake's transformative narrative strategies. By respecting the integrity of Blake's work, taking every written mark on the page as potentially functional, Ault shows how the intricate interweaving of narrative patterns and interruptions are instrumental to conscious reading. The poetic intent is nothing less than a complete renovation of the reading experience, the potential of which is the realization of what Blake has called "Four-fold vision." Ault's approach serves as a guide both to reading "The Four Zoas" and to participating in a radical poetic method.

Narrative Unbound : Re-Visioning William Blake's The Four Zoas

Literature & Fiction

Ault, Donald

History & Criticism

Station Hill Pr

<p>Narrative Unbound is the first full-scale interpretation of the verbal text of Blake's most complex long poetic prophecy, The Four Zoas. Never engraved or published in the poet/artist's lifetime, the poem remains in a single manuscript, apparently unfinished and heavily revised, and yet is widely celebrated as one of Blake's most powerful narrative works. Ault challenges the view that the poem is intrinsically incomplete and flawed, arguing instead that the famous difficulties of the text are aspects of Blake's transformative narrative strategies. By respecting the integrity of Blake's work, taking every written mark on the page as potentially functional, Ault shows how the intricate interweaving of narrative patterns and interruptions are instrumental to conscious reading. The poetic intent is nothing less than a complete renovation of the reading experience, the potential of which is the realization of what Blake has called Four-fold vision. Ault's approach serves as a guide both to reading The Four Zoas and to participating in a radical poetic method.</p>

NARRATIVE UNBOUND: Re-Visioning William Blake's The Four Zoas (Clinamen Studies)

Station Hill Press

This first full-scale interpretation of Blake's most complex poetic prophecy, The Four Zoas, argues that the poem's famous difficulty is intrinsic to the poet's transformative narrative strategies. Already highly influential in Blake studies, Ault's book is a line-by-line guide to the poem and an inquiry into a core issue of contemporary poetics: how do altered processes of reading restructure consciousness?

Narrative Unbound : Re-Visioning William Blake's the Four Zoas

George, Quasha

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