Representations of the Female Breasts and Milk in Blake's Composite Art

2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 15520147
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: ヨーロッパ語系文学
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: IMA-IZUMI Yoko University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Literature and Linguistics, Professor, 大学院・人文社会科学研究科, 教授 (40151667)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2004
• Keywords: Blake / milk / breasts / composite art / body / visual / gender / semen

Research Abstract

Two years have been spent in examining the ways in which William Blake represented the female breasts and milk in his poetry as well as in his visual art. Blake's visual art is conventionally examined independently of his verbal text, despite that the two mediums of art are inseparably combined in his execution of art. His poems are actually interlined with illustrations, and I regard the two mediums of art as a form of composite art.
In my analysis of Blake's composite art, I focus upon the key motifs, "the female breasts" and "milk." Having clarified what he meant by these motifs against the eighteenth-century understanding of them, I examined how the female breast and milk are visualized in Blake's works, especially in his later illuminated works. Issuing from the female breasts, milk is significantly opposed to the male semen in the sexual conflict between women and men. Gender issues are closely examined in my examination of Blake's later works.
I made use of the facsimiles of Blake's illuminated works. It was also useful to analyze the digitized pictures which were available in the Blake Archive web site.