New book combines neuroscience and literary criticism to explore William Blake’s visions

David Worrall offers an innovative way of considering Blake's visions and syaesthesia

Palgrave has just published a new book by David Worrall, William Blake's Visions: Art, Hallucinations, Synaesthesia:

This book is an inquiry into whether what Blake called his ‘visions’ can be attributed to recognizable perceptual phenomena. The conditions identified include visual hallucinations (some derived from migraine aura), and auditory and visual hallucinations derived from several types of synaesthesia. Over a long period of time, Blake has been celebrated as a ‘visionary,’ yet his ‘visions’ have not been discussed. Worrall draws on an understanding of neuroscience to examine both Blake’s visual art and writings, and discusses the lack of evidence pointing towards psychosis or pathological ill-health, thus questioning the rumours pertaining to Blake’s insanity.

David Worrall is Emeritus Professor of English at Nottingham Trent University. He has published widely on both William Blake and Eighteenth-Century Theatre..

William Blake's Visions: Art, Hallucinations, Synaesthesia is available from Springer and other booksellers.