Description
Join Professor Jason Whittaker, Blake scholar at Lincoln University, John Higgs, author of William Blake vs. the World, and Camila Oliveira, a researcher specialising in Blake and music, as they discuss Blake’s remarkable life and work.
William Blake was one of the world’s most prolific artists and poets and yet, when he died in poverty in 1827, his work was derided and all but forgotten.
Today, thankfully, it’s a different story. Blake is hailed as a visionary and the author of the unofficial national anthem ‘Jerusalem’ and of philosophies that have helped shape contemporary English identity. Blake now enjoys a place in the pantheon of literary greats. Join us to learn why Blake still matters so much today.
About the Speakers
John Higgs
John Higgs is a writer who specialises in finding previously unsuspected narratives, hidden in obscure corners of our history and culture, which can change the way we see the world. His work has been described as “Absolutely wonderful” by Terry Gilliam and “breathtakingly lucid” by Alan Moore. According to The Times, “Higgs’s prose has a diamond-hard quality. He knows how to make us relate.” “A while ago I decided to read anything Higgs writes,” said Frank Cottrell Boyce, “He seems to be able to take any subject — pop music, Watling Street, conspiracy theories, robotics — and poke at it until it yields up its secrets.”
His books include The KLF, Stranger Than We Can Imagine, Watling Street and William Blake Vs The World . His last book, Love And Let Die: Bond, the Beatles and the British Psyche , was published in September 2022.
Camila Oliveira
Camila Oliveira is Assistant Researcher at the University of Lisbon, Trustee of The Blake Society and Blake Cottage Trust. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and King’s College London on the translation of William Blake’s Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant of Albion to Portuguese and biblical intertextuality. She is currently working on Romanticism and Music Reception and writing the monograph William Blake and Contemporary Music.
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.
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