Soul, seed, species: William Blake and the language of preformationist biology

Thesis

This thesis discusses how Blake transformed biological images of birth and regeneration into complex symbols of spiritual, political, and artistic rebirth. Situating Blake against key developments in the eighteenth-century life sciences, it finds Blake resisting evolutionary materialism and its rationalist preference for material progress and self-preservation over the spiritual values of redemption, self-sacrifice, and renewal. Blake juxtaposes two biological paradigms— preformation and epigenesis—throughout his corpus. The former emphasises the continuity and heredity of form, while the latter emphasises self-organisation and plasticity. Working against recent criticism, this thesis aligns Blake with preformationist thinkers such as Charles Bonnet and Johann Kaspar Lavater. Insisting on the importance of reading Blake's organic symbolism in the context of his unorthodox Christian views, it argues that Blake saw epigenesis as a materialist conception of life masquerading as a vitalist one, and saw preformation as a model more sympathetic to his spiritual conception of vitality.

Examining works across Blake's corpus, chapter 1 argues that preformation science offered Blake potent symbols with which to address the soteriological and eschatological nuances of regeneration. Chapter 2 discusses the political dimensions of Blakean regeneration. Reading the Urizen Books and The Four Zoas against Blake's neglected The French Revolution, it contests assumptions in recent Blake criticism that the poet found images of freedom in biological self-organisation. Engaging with eighteenth century materialist neurophysiology, chapter 3 argues that The Four Zoas registers a deep dissatisfaction with the autopoietic nature of life and language. Chapter 4 examines Blake’s engagement with the organicist cult of original genius, arguing that Blake uses preformationist symbolism in Milton to emphasise prophetic tradition over individual originality. Finally, discussing engravings such as the Laocoön reproduction alongside Blake’s pronouncements against the classics, chapter 5 argues that Blake uses preformationist language to undermine neoclassical values of formal autonomy and cultural autochthony.

Authors: Lee, T

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-azxmyp8py
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: preformation; self-organisation; William Blake; literature and science; epigenesis; organicism; original genius
• Subjects: Dissertations, Academic; Doctor of philosophy degree