This volume deals with a variety of English language based authors and texts across a broad time period, and their reception in Iberian cultures. This review will discuss the first two chapters of the book: “Urizen now: Reading anew William Blake’s response to his times”, by Alcinda Pinheiro de Sousa and Jason Whittaker, and “William Blake in Spanish popular culture and literature”, by M. Cecilia Marchetto Santorun. Since the volume as a whole is not intended for Blake scholars, some readers may find parts of the chapters engaging with ideas at a basic level and providing more information than a Blake scholar might need. However, I found it a nice change to not worry about remembering the depths of scholarship which can occasionally distract the reader from the overall argument.
Chapter 1: A Modern Urizen
De Sousa and Whittaker provide an extended overview of how Urizen has been regarded from the 1970s onwards, a decade which saw the start of a “composite poetical key” (1) in Blakean academia. While most of this is not new to a Blakean scholar, this literature review section is not only important, but fundamentally intrinsic to their entire argument. The authors expand on this to engage with the emergence of the Blake Archive in the twenty-first century, explaining that it “had a decisive impact on the development of Blake studies” (4) before linking it to the similar importance of the facsimile editions in the previous century. This shows that the online versions of Blake are exceptionally valuable to his reception.
Perhaps the most essential point made in this chapter is one that is so well known to Blake scholars that we tend to overlook it: that the “different traditions” connected to Blake (artistically, socially, historically, etc.) allow “him to transcend his own historical period” (5). The authors explore how Blake himself developed his ideas through an exceptional close reading of “Gwin, King of Norway” (1788) from Blake’s earliest written work, Poetical Sketches. By engaging with Blake’s youthful views they examine how “the violence of the rulers cannot but generate the violence of the oppressed” (7), which seems to be in direct contrast to Blake’s later works that reject physical violence and focus instead on “mental fight”. This different approach was refreshing, including the evidence coming from Poetical Sketches which has been overlooked by a number of Blakean scholars. I hope this is the start of a resurgence regarding the importance of Blake’s juvenilia.
In a predominantly Anglo-American area of scholarship, the concept that Blake’s ideas are “utterly diverse” (7) is nothing new, but this chapter brings together ideas regarding the fixed nature of Urizenic systems and places them alongside multiple critical approaches. Whittaker and de Sousa reject the use of Blake’s own work to advocate for a “correct” reading, and with some translations of her own words, de Sousa explains the importance of recognising the changes that Blake himself made by remembering and engaging with the chronology of his works. The authors explain that Blake wants his readers to work and uncover meanings (plural) in his works, which then forces readers to create new systems; relying on Blake’s own would be Urizenic.
The most interesting point made is how the Covid pandemic and Russia/Ukraine war has changed readers’ connection with Urizen, having been “shaped by the tumultuous times we are living through” (9). The authors acknowledge that the reader has to place themselves in their own time, just as we place Blake in his.
Chapter 2: Spanish, Catalonian, and Galician Blake(s)
Although this chapter is titled “William Blake in Spanish popular culture and literature”, Marchetto Santorun delves into twentieth-century Spanish translations, and also the different interpretations of Blake found in Catalonian and Galician cultures. She starts by reiterating the point that Blake is defined differently in different time periods and places, briefly discussing how and why the English far-right came to use “Jerusalem” as their anthem after the 9/11 attacks. She then goes on to examine how culture, time and history affects Spanish reception and regards Blake, placing him as a revolutionary who had individuality.
Marchetto Santorun’s examines Leopoldo María Panero’s relationship to Blake as “poète maudit” (22), though Panero’s views of Blake “as a diabolist and a decadent” (22) seems rather at odds to those more familiar with the Anglo-American reception. However, this chapter examines many other responses to Blake that are outside the orbit of those restricted by their singular reliance on the English language. Marchetto Santorun not only provides interesting points and poems, but she also translates them for her English readers – something I very much appreciated! The author’s dedication to providing alternative readings of Blake is clearly demonstrated with this.
But beyond the translations of Blake’s poems, and his reception in both popular poetry and music, Marchetto Santorun also explains how poets from Catalan and Galicia responded to different parts of Blake’s works to help them find their cultural identity and also connect to a wider international community. She explains how in “Galician culture, there has been a greater fixation on the lyrical, musical, and Bardic side” (28) of Blake and draws connections to the Celtic, whereas the contemporary “Spanish-speaking poets and musicians seem to have developed a decadent and countercultural interpretation” (28). This highly interesting chapter is full of historical and social reasons for such different responses to Blake and gives an exciting insight into the importance of relying on scholarship and reception outside of the English language.
In the first two chapters of Weaving Tales, the reader is presented with a new and interesting way of engaging with Blake. De Sousa and Whittaker place him within the overall context of critical approaches, including ones that offer a different perspective to Anglophone readers. Marchetto Santorun explores alternative readings of Blake, primarily engaging with historical and cultural movements that use Blake to examine their own identities. Together, both chapters demonstrate the importance of international participation with Blake’s works, and how the poet-painter continues to be an important figure throughout time and space.