This course examines the work of William Blake, a radical Romantic poet-engraver, painter, and printmaker.  Blake’s mixed-media work uniquely combines both image and text, and rages against tyrannical apparatuses and static notions of form, genre, identity, gender, sexuality, history, and power-knowledge. In addition to close readings and grappling with Blake’s visionary mythology, we will deploy theoretical approaches (including feminist, psychoanalyst, queer, and deconstructive theories) all while keeping in mind Blake’s participation in major and minor histories. Students will encounter Blake’s unique process of composition and relief etching or “illuminated printing,” and try their own hand at making copper engravings and printmaking. Assignments include a presentation, weekly reading responses, a hands-on engraving project, and a final research essay.