Description
What does the radical poetry and art of William Blake say about the promises and failures of the American Dream?
Join art historian and political columnist, Stephen F. Eisenman, and Blake scholar, Jason Whittaker, for a provocative exploration of Blake’s revolutionary vision, its surprising relevance to American ideals of freedom, and its actual practices of power.
Drawing on Blake’s fierce critiques of empire, inequality, and spiritual decay, this illustrated lecture and discussion uncover how the artist and poet’s work resonates with today’s struggles over citizenship, immigration, race, and gender.
This will be a fascinating conversation at the crossroads of art, politics, dreams, and nightmares, challenging us to reimagine what a new American Dream could mean today.
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About the Chair
Professor Jason Whittaker
Jason Whittaker is Head of the School of English and Journalism at the University of Lincoln. He has written extensively on William Blake, specialising in the reception of Blake by later generations of artists, writers, and musicians. He is also co-editor of the series Pop Music, Culture and Identity.
About the Author
Stephen F. Eisenman
Stephen F. Eisenman is an American art historian, author, curator, and activist. He is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Northwestern University and is the author of several influential books, including The Temptation of Saint Redon (1989), Gauguin’s Skirt (1997), The Abu Ghraib Effect (2007), and The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making of Animal Rights (2013). He also served as the principal author and editor of Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History (2010).
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