Every thing is human, mighty! sublime!

New literary humanism and the trope of the daimon in William Blake’s Jerusalem

Dr Todd William Dearing
Portable Document Format (PDF), 346pp.
This is the product of three years of doctorate research.

Reading is an act of understanding humanity. This is because literature—novels, poetry, drama, and creative non-fiction—is a vast repository of human experience and imagination. When we approach literature as a mirror unto ourselves, we can better know and evolve our own humanness.

With deep insight and precision, Dr Dearing articulates this approach to literary humanism through a study of the poet-painter William Blake’s conception of the daimon.

This is a scholarly work—the casual reader may find it a difficult climb, although the attentive mind will be adequately rewarded by the work’s rigour, precision, and depth.

This work enters into that wisdom which is the seabed of Western knowledge; a body of lore historically overlooked by the middling consensus yet deeply considered by some of the world’s greatest minds (Heraclitus, Socrates, Aristotle, Plotinus, Milton, Goethe, Coleridge, and others).

It includes a historical survey of the daimonic tradition, culminating in today’s concept of human genius. This work is spanned by interlocking pylons of knowledge that resonate with the ages and is speckled with points of focus for present day creative work.

Dr Dearing here renders this golden thread of the daimonic more accessible, while highlighting how to understand and develop one’s humanity through reading literature. This work is not to be missed by anyone on the quest for knowledge.