Blake and Hamann

Abstract Out of the Anglo-German context, the previous chapter uncovered its two most exorbitant figures: William Blake and Johann Georg Hamann. This chapter discusses the most startling affinities and parallels in their works, especially in their ideas about language, and makes clear their status as exorbitants, as figures who move outside the track of traditional literary history. The chapter takes inspiration from previously unknown nineteenth-century material and presents Blake and Hamann as philosophically deeply related figures who need to be read across national traditions (and, by extension, show us the limitations of these traditions). It shows how, once we take them seriously, they open up a way of thinking about central issues of the period—language, reason, religion, sexuality—in ways that radically question our standard accounts both of the periods and our own assumptions.