William Blake's Visions: Art, Hallucinations, Synaesthesia (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)

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. Finding Blake’s Artwork Accessing the Secondary Sources Preface Contents Abbreviations List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Physiology of Blake’s Hallucinations Scheerer’s Phenomena Migraine Aura Chapter 3: Perceiving More than Perception The Eye’s Mind and Blake for Babes The Post-bereavement Hallucination of Robert There Is No Natural Religion: Perception and Perceptual Burdens Mirror-writing Chapter 4: Klüver Form-constants Example One: An Allegory of the Bible (c. 1780–1785) Example Two: Jacob’s Ladder (c. 1799–1807) Example Three: The Penance of Jane Shore in St. Paul’s Church—A Drawing Example Four: Milton’s Mysterious Dream c. 1816 Example Five: Epitome of James Hervey’s “Meditations Among the Tombs” Example Six: The Illuminated Books (up to 1794) Chapter 5: The Induction of Klüver Visual Hallucinations Migraine Aura Phosphenes and Light Induction Electrotherapy Flicker-Light-Induced Hallucinations Engraving and Hallucinations Chapter 6: Blake’s Synaesthesia Introduction to Synaesthesia Grapheme-colour Synaesthesia Chapter 7: Blake’s Synaesthesia, The Visionary Heads Chapter 8: Blake’s Synaesthesia: The Testimony of Crabb Robinson Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia Ticker-Tape Synaesthesia Chapter 9: Discussion and Conclusion Index