A Study On Intertextuality Of Biblical Quotations And Themes In Blakean Myths

In all the writings of William Blake, one influence is constantly at work:that of the King James Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. For Blake, the Bible is a rich source of poetic possibilities, and biblical citations and allusions are powerful poetic device he employed with almost unparalleled craftsmanship. However, because of the different contexts in the two systems of myth, there are some obvious variations when Blake uses the quotations, imageries and themes from the Bible. Based on an intertexual study of the Bible and works of William Blake, the present thesis attempts to explore the new meaning of the Biblical quotations and themes in the system of myth created in his poems, especially in his later prophecies.This thesis consists of three chapters apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion.Before a close analysis of the Biblical quotations and themes, the first chapter sketches the outline of his system of myth. This chapter attempts to give a complete description of his central myth, including how Blake establishes the mythology through these books. Then two of the most representative images in the system are introduced, the four "Zoas", which comes from Ezekiel’s vision in the Bible, and the Satanic Orc, through which readers could have the first glimpse of Blake’s borrowing from the Bible.Embedded quotations are the issue at stake in the second chapter, in which the smallest building blocks of biblical materials in his works, especially those in his late works, are put under close examination. The extent of Blake’s borrowing and dependence on the Bible is here shown in particulars, and one cannot but see these prophecies now as primarily Bible-inspired. However, when he lifts these out of the biblical texts and carefully blending them into his poetry, some obvious variations could be noticed because of the change of context. Three typical kinds of variations are explored here, that is, variations in biblical metaphors, variations in connotations of these texts and variations in the allusions in them.In the third chapter, the adopted themes of Blake from biblical traditions are discussed under the surface of the Blake’s system of myths, the theme of fall, the theme of exile and the relationship between God and men, through which Blake’s perspective about the divine-human relationship is reflected.Through a careful intertextual study of the two systems, this thesis comes to the conclusion that Blake was heavily influenced by the Biblical system of myth, and the Biblical images and themes are incorporated, and sometimes quoted directly in his own works. Doubtlessly, these biblical quotations and illusions have greatly enhanced the grandeur and sublimity of Blake’s works, yet the mythology remains original with Blake in the sense that in his system of myth it laid upon his imagination, and his biblical borrowing in his mythological world is developed and merged in a series of his own new context. His unique system of mythology, in turn has exerted an enormous influence on the later generations.