"Amante de selvagem rebelião": a figuração satânica nas profecias continentais de William Blake

Abstract

In this study, I analyze the thematic development of William Blake s satanic figure, the character Orc. To this end, I approach the illuminated poems called ―Continental Prophecies‖, which are composed by the books America A Prophecy (1793), Europe A Prophecy (1794) and The Song of Los (1795), that is divided into two parts, ―Africa‖ and ―Asia‖. In these works, Blake articulates themes such as apocalypse, energy, imagination and revolution in a relation to the French and the American Revolution and criticizes the political, religious and artistic thinking of the period. Of the matter of methodology, this work presents four chapters. In the first, I discuss the problems about the Devil s theme, from the Middle Ages to the Romanticism, starting by a mythical-religious approach of this figure, and then investigating the demon as a literary myth. In the second, I present a discussion about the characterization of Orc and his opponent, Urizen. I also analyze the poem America, focused on questions about desire, revolution and liberty. In he third, I discuss about Europe and proceed with the mapping of the satanic theme in Blake s prophecies. I also approach the question of the repression of desire, represented by the character Enitharmon, and discuss the subversions undertaken by Blake on religious dogma. In the fourth, I approach The Song of Los and argue about the blakean mythology, his ideal of Satanism, and also confront critical reading and interpretive perspectives of Blake s work. My discussion is developed in a constant dialogue between three instances: religious, social and artistic. This conception was thought by Peter Schock (2003), treated as a ―Cultural Matrix‖. This study explores how Blake s art dialogues with eighteenth century revolutions, it discuss its religious, political and artistic influences, and offers a conception of Blake s satanic ideal in his prophecies. The character Orc, in these poems, presents an amalgam of his artistic, religious and social thinking, an instance of confrontation through which Blake conceive metaphysical ideals, as the philosophy of contraries or the sensual enjoyment. Through the development of the Devil s theme, the artist tries to signify conflicting thoughts as sin and sensual delight, heaven and hell, body and soul, subverting these issues by a infernal ideal.