In Conversation with Ines Tebourski – Recording

This presentation aims at showcasing the way Los - a major character in William Blake’s poetry - is a healthy narcissist. This is mainly studied through Jerusalem, Blake’s longest and culminating poem, that revolves around the idea of Los’s mission to save Albion, who stands for England in Blake’s poetry, and humanity in general. This presentation seeks to bring to bear Blake’s poetic as well as artistic productions within a multimodal analysis that takes into consideration Blake’s amalgamation of the “sister arts” in the production of his illuminated poetry. It strives to call attention to precise poetic and artistic elements by exploring selected plates of this poem to elucidate the way Blake’s words and paintings stand as markers of Los’s healthy narcissism. This presentation attempts also to highlight the links between Los’s healthy narcissism and Blake’s. As Los stands for the creative imagination in Blake’s poetry and stands for Blake himself, this presentation foregrounds the elements that associate Los’s to Blake’s narcissism. The theme of narcissism in Blake’s works is not to be understood in the Freudian negative sense of the word that revolves around people who have narcissistic personality disorder but with reference to what Heinz Kohut and Graig Malkin refer to as “healthy narcissism” which is vital to one’s well-being and endows people with positive traits such as self-esteem, pride, ambition, creativity, but also high esteem and care for the other. This presentation operates on two axes. The first is through the iconic representation and the actions of Los and the second is through Blake’s unconventional choice of producing his illuminated works