Forms And Functions Of Structural Violence In Blake's Early Illuminated Books

This thesis explores both the forms and the functions of structural violence in Blake's two early illuminated books,Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Visions of the Daughters of Albion.In 1969 Johan Galtung defined structural violence as indirect and impersonal,and explained that structural violence derives from social injustice.In the 1990 s,Galtung further elucidated the relationship between cultural violence and structural violence;in his research of individual sufferings and social structure,Paul Farmer called for attention to the silenced sufferings in the history;more recently,Rob Nixon advanced the concept of slow violence,and discussed how violence becomes more difficult to discern when dispersed across time and space.The present thesis consists of five parts,including introduction,three chapters and conclusion.In the introduction,based on the notions of structural violence mentioned above,four features of structural violence are distinguished to move forward the discussion of Blake's verbal representation of structural violence in Chapter One.Examining the stylistic features of pictorial structure,figures,lines and illustrations,Chapter Two addresses the implication of and resistance to structural violence in Blake's visual texts.Chapter Three discusses the complementarity and contrariety of Blake's early illuminated books and their rebellion against both structural violence and the Sister Arts tradition in the verbal-visual interplay.Finally I conclude my thesis by reiterating my argument that structural violence is hidden in the social structure,justified by cultural violence,and thus difficult to perceive;still,a strenuous voice of resistance against oppression can be heard throughout these works.