CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (Master's Thesis) PDF

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CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (Yüksek Lisans Tezi) Mahmut KAYAALTI Kütahya ‒ 2021 T.C. KÜTAHYA DUMLUPINAR ÜNİVERSİTESİ LİSANSÜSTÜ EĞİTİM ENSTİTÜSÜ İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı Yüksek Lisans Tezi CONTROVERSIAL R...

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CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (Yüksek Lisans Tezi) Mahmut KAYAALTI Kütahya ‒ 2021

T.C. KÜTAHYA DUMLUPINAR ÜNİVERSİTESİ LİSANSÜSTÜ EĞİTİM ENSTİTÜSÜ İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı

Yüksek Lisans Tezi

CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE

Danışman: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Pelin KUT BELENLİ

Hazırlayan: Mahmut KAYAALTI

Kütahya - 2021

Kabul ve Onay

Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü Müdürlüğüne,

Bu çalışma, jürimiz tarafından Batı Dilleri ve Edebiyatı Anabilim/Anasanat Dalında YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ olarak kabul edilmiştir.

Tez Jürisi

İmza Kabul

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Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Pelin KUT BELENLİ (Danışman) Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Pınar TAŞDELEN Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Ali BELENNİ

Onay

imza

Prof. Dr. Şahmurat ARIK Enstitü Müdürü

Bilimsel Etik Bildirimi Yüksek Lisans tezi olarak hazırladığım “Controversial Representation of God and Christianity in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience” adlı çalışmanın öneri aşamasından sonuçlandığı aşamaya kadar geçen süreçte bilimsel etiğe ve akademik kurallara özenle uyduğumu, tez içindeki tüm bilgileri bilimsel ahlak ve gelenek çerçevesinde elde ettiğimi, tez yazım kurallarına uygun olarak hazırladığımı, bu çalışmamda doğrudan veya dolaylı olarak yaptığım her alıntıya kaynak gösterdiğimi ve yararlandığım eserlerin kaynakçada gösterilenlerden oluştuğunu beyan ederim.

……./……/2021 Mahmut KAYAALTI

Özgeçmiş 2013 yılında Erciyes Üniversitesi İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı bölümünden mezun olmuştur. İki yıl özel bir şirkette tercüman olarak görev yaptıktan sonra, 2015 yılında Kazakistan’da bulunan Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi’nde İngilizce Öğretim Görevlisi olarak akademik kariyerine başlamıştır. Görev hayatına 2020 yılından itibaren Kütahya Dumlupınar Üniversitesi’nde devam etmektedir.

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ABSTRACT CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE KAYAALTI, Mahmut Master’s Thesis, English Language and Literature Advisor: Asst. Prof. Pelin KUT BELENLİ October, 2021, 91 pages This thesis examines how William Blake represents God and Christianity in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and to what extent this representation parallels Blake’s religious outlook. First, Blake’s religious outlook as demonstrably recorded in his biographies and in the referential works written on his literary works, is handled to better understand his religious presentation in Songs of Innocence and of Experience. How he regards God and interprets Christianity is clearly depicted in the study. Then, 15 selected poems that are relevant to each other in terms of religion are analysed in detail. The selected poems have been analysed thematically. The data obtained as a result of the analyses proves that Blake does not show a consistent representation of God and Christianity in Songs of Innocence and of Experience. More clearly, the concepts of God and Christianity are represented through different means in different poems. Therefore, this representation somehow contrasts with Blake’s own religious outlook. In other words, his understanding of God and Christianity is presented in a controversial way in some of the analysed poems in this thesis. Keywords: Christianity, Church, God, Institutionalized Religion, Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake

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ÖZET WILLIAM BLAKE’İN MASUMİYET VE TECRÜBE ŞARKILARI ESERİNDEKİ TANRI VE HRİSTİYANLIK UNSURLARININ ÇELİŞKİLİ TEMSİLİ KAYAALTI, Mahmut Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı Tez Danışmanı: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Pelin KUT BELENLİ Ekim, 2021, 91 sayfa Bu tez, William Blake’in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Masumiyet ve Tecrübe Şarkıları) eserinde Tanrı’yı ve Hristiyanlığı nasıl temsil ettiğini ve bu temsilin Blake’in dini bakış açısıyla ne ölçüde paralellik gösterdiğini incelemektedir. İlk olarak, biyografilerinde ve onun edebi eserleri üzerine yazılmış çalışmalarda açıkça kaydedildiği şekliyle Blake’in dini bakış açısı, Songs of Innocence and of Experience eserindeki dini tutumunu daha iyi anlamak için ele alınmıştır. Çalışmada, Tanrı’yı ne şekilde kabul ettiği ve Hristiyanlığı nasıl yorumladığı açıkça tasvir edilmiştir. Daha sonra, aralarında dini konularda benzerlik bulunan 15 şiir seçilerek detaylı bir şekilde analiz edilmiştir. Şiirler tematik olarak incelenmiştir. İncelemeler sonucunda elde edilen veriler, Blake’in Songs of Innocence and of Experince eserinde Tanrı ve Hristiyanlığın tutarlı bir şekilde temsil edilmediğini kanıtlamaktadır. Daha açık bir ifadeyle, Tanrı kavramı ve Hristiyanlık farklı şiirlerde farklı şekilde ifade edilmektedir. Bu bakımdan, bu sunum, bir bakıma Blake’in kendi dini bakış açısıyla da ters düşmektedir. Bu nedenle, bu tezde, incelenen şiirlerin bir kısmında onun Tanrı ve Hristiyanlık anlayışının çelişkili bir şekilde sunulduğu tespit edilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Hristiyanlık, Kilise, Kurumsallaşmış Din, Masumiyet ve Deneyim Şarkıları, Tanrı, William Blake

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the writing of this thesis, I have obtained a great deal of support and assistance. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Assistant Professor Pelin Kut Belenli, whose guidance was precious in building my whole thesis. Her elucidative feedback encouraged me to sort my points in a precise way and brought my work to a supreme level. I would also like to extend my thanks to Associate Professor Pınar Taşdelen, who brought new aspects to my thesis with her valuable feedback. I also thank to Assistant Professor Ali Belenli, Assistant Professor Ansı Sev Ateş, and Asistant Professor Sinan Akıllı for their support. I would like to thank my dear wife Aysun Kayaaltı, without whose support and patience, I would not have succeeded to complete my thesis. A special thanks to my three-year-old son Hamza Kayaaltı, who could always make me joyful and dedicated to my work with his existence whenever I lost my hope to accomplish this study.

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CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... v ÖZET............................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... vii CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN SONGS OF INNOCENCE 1.1. “THE LAMB” ........................................................................................................ 15 1.2. “THE LITTLE BLACK BOY” ............................................................................ 18 1.3. “THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER” ............................................................................ 23 1.4. “THE LITTLE BOY FOUND” ............................................................................ 26 1.5. “A CRADLE SONG” ............................................................................................. 27 1.6. “THE DIVINE IMAGE” ....................................................................................... 28 1.7. “HOLY THURSDAY”........................................................................................... 30 1.8. “ON ANOTHER’S SORROW” ............................................................................ 34 1.9. CHAPTER REVIEW ............................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2 CONTROVERSIAL REPRESENTATION OF GOD AND CHRISTIANITY IN SONGS OF EXPERIENCE 2.1. “HOLY THURSDAY”........................................................................................... 39 2.2. “THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER” ............................................................................ 41 2.3. “THE TYGER” ...................................................................................................... 45 2.4. “THE GARDEN OF LOVE” ................................................................................ 46 2.5. “THE LITTLE VAGABOND” ............................................................................. 49 2.6. “A LITTLE BOY LOST”...................................................................................... 51 2.7. “A LITTLE GIRL LOST” .................................................................................... 53 2.8. HAPTER REVIEW ............................................................................................... 55

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CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................. 57 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................... 60 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 78 INDEX ............................................................................................................................ 90

THESIS TEXT

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INTRODUCTION The aim of this thesis is to study the portrayal of God and Christianity in William Blake’s (1757 – 1827) selected poems in his Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). The poems chosen for the study are “The Lamb”, “The Little Black Boy”, “The Chimney Sweeper”, “The Little Boy Found”, “A Cradle Song”, “The Divine Image”, “Holy Thursday”, “On Another’s Sorrow” from Songs of Innocence (1789), and from Songs of Experience (1794) “Holy Thursday”, “The Chimney Sweeper”, “The Tyger”, “The Garden of Love”, “The Little Vagabond”, “A Little Boy Lost”, “A Little Girl Lost”. Blake, who is recognised as an engraver and a Romantic poet, is also noticed by his religious outlook. When the academic and biographical studies on Blake are examined, it is observed that this religious outlook greatly influenced Blake’s personality, and as a result, he produced many works in which he reveals his religiosity (Ryan, 2003, p. 165; Newell, 2018). As one of those works, Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience contains numerous religious references regarding the depiction of both God and Christianity. For instance, the meaning of God, God’s relationship with humans, Christianity as a form of belief, the reflection of Christianity in society and the presentation of Christianity by the English Church1 are some of the subjects frequently mentioned in the poems within this thesis. The problem is that Blake is not consistent in the descriptions of God and Christianity in Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Simply, while Blake focuses on the spiritual integration of God and human in some poems, in some others he positions God as a worldly deity. The same controversial case is valid for the representation of Christianity, as well. While various aspects of Christianity are criticised in some parts of the work, these same aspects are well-regarded in other poems. Correspondingly, this study investigates how God and Christianity are explicitly handled throughout the work and how this representation parallels Blake’s own religious outlook. Blake’s Religious Outlook Many sources in the field show Blake as a prophet or mystic and his books as prophetic (Shen et al, 2014, p. 1724). This case is not because William Blake had miracles or special forces like former prophets, but just because of the religious outlook. Even

In the thesis, the word “Church” starting with a capital letter represents the “religious authority” while “church” without capitalization is used to suggest “prayer hall”.

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though he was heavily influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg2 and the Bible in shaping his religious outlook, Blake was a man following his own principles when the faith was the matter. In the simplest sense, Blake sets his religious outlook by questioning an individual’s faith system philosophically and morally. Langridge expresses this as “religion was to [Blake] a matter of intuition, and not a question of creed or dogma at all” (1904, p. 59). Therefore, when his religious outlook is taken into consideration, it is not meant that he either makes up a new religion or modifies Christianity. Instead, he mainly deals with the representation of Christianity by the English Church since he thinks that the Church manipulates society by abusing people’s religious values with the help of its authoritative power. As Overton and Relton (1994) state, “…nineteenth-century churchmen saw the previous century as an era of decline, a period of lethargy instead of activity, of worldliness instead of spirituality, of self-seeking instead of self-denial, of grossness instead of refinement” (p. 1), and eventually, they boosted their efficacy. In other words, the English Church became more dominant in the governance in the 19th century and led the society in the way of its interest (Ryan, 2003, p.151), which is conceptualised as “institutionalised religion” by Blake (Musante, 2007, p. 26). Accordingly, institutionalised religion turns into a societal control tool rather than being a faith system. Instead of having individual spiritual experience and enjoying the freedom of belief, people are obliged to the directives of the Church and are guided within its predetermined rules. Taylor summarises the condition during Blake’s time as follows: Religion and politics were not regarded as discrete spheres of activity. The two were inextricably linked in both the theory and practice of government. On the one hand, the Church was an agent of the state, as well with as a society charged the salvation of souls. On the other hand, many politicians were conscious that they were the leaders of a Christian polity, at the head of which stood the king, the godly magistrate. (1987, p. 41)

In such an atmosphere, Blake “was convinced that religion profoundly affects every aspect of human life —political, economic, psychological and cultural that its influence has generally not been a positive one” (2011, p. 125). Therefore, he believed that a serious transformation from dominant religious authority to a freer style of religious life was necessary for the public. So, he carried out the only task he could perform individually. Blake criticised the wrong attitudes of the Church through his works. In a way, by showing the mistakes in the presentation of Christianity, he depicted how Christianity 2

He is a Swedish scientist and Christian mystic (1688-1772). He had claimed Christ was shown to him in 1745. He then devoted his life to thinking about what he saw in Heaven and Hell and what he heard from the angels along with the interpreting the inner and symbolic meaning of the Bible (Jones & Fernyhough, 2008, p. 8).

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should be experienced. Indeed, Blake was not literally a prophet. He did not call people to act whatever he preaches. He considered the Church’s representation of Christianity as inconvenient, and consequently uttered this through his works. In this sense, Blake’s dissenter approach to English Church is a way to disclose his religious outlook. Representation of God and Christianity in Blake’s Religious Outlook This part of the thesis consists of Blake’s personal views on God and Christianity expressed in his works and in the books written about him. Although Blake had Christian faith, which was reflected in his literary style, paintings, and life style, his belief in God was different from many Christians. For him, everything in the universe was not only a product of God but also God itself: “God only Acts and Is, in existing beings or Men” (Blake, 1923a, p. 198). Rather than monopolising God and seeing Him as an inaccessible entity, Blake preferred to internalise God with human nature. His famous biographer and close friend Crabb Robinson reports: “On my asking in what light he viewed the great question concerning the Divinity of Jesus Christ, he said - ‘He is the only God’. But then he added - ‘And so am I and so are you’” (1938). This anecdote shows that Blake believed in a god that was incarnated on earth as a human—that is Christ. He suggests that humans can genuinely understand Christ through imagination, and when this understanding is gained, they can start to become Christ (Klapes & College, 2020, p. 12). For that reason, according to Blake, Christ is the peak of what humans struggle to be. Since God and Christ are positioned in the same status, God is not a supreme being outside of human capacity; instead, Blake claims that God is something that resides in all humans. Blake’s God “is the great sea of unity and that each human being is like an individual wave arising from that sea and collapsing back into it” (Burch). Thus, his God is embracive, and similar to people themselves, not an authority built over them that is waiting to award or punish His creations. For the necessity of believing in God, Blake embraces the spiritual side of God. According to him, both universe and the beings on it are the products of God, which suggests that every being has a spark from Him. This being the case, Blake offers humans that they should be under the light of God to be fully satisfied with their existences (Wills et al., 2020, p. 266). However, this satisfaction is not gained through physical religious activities such as worship, fasting, or carrying out rituals since Christ does not need them.

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It is the satisfaction that is gained through the philosophical integration of both humans and God. To make the distinction clear between Blake’s God and the Christian God, Ryan (2003) states as follows: Blake sometimes calls Satan “the God of this world.” He is the God most Christians actually worship and persecute others for not worshipping. The religion of Satan is the one that is practiced in most churches on most Sundays, an ideology that accepts the present defective order of the world as a manifestation of God’s eternal will. It serves the State’s need for security by assigning chaplains to its armies and prisons and by providing a religious rationale for any public policy that requires one, from genocide and slavery to subtler forms of racism and economic injustice. It encourages repression and submission rather than liberation. In short it discourages its adherents from imagining or even desiring a world order much different from the one at hand. (p. 160)

Based on these expressions, it is seen that, according to Blake, the God of Christianity is the entity that needs humans’ worship and praise. Christian God categorises people in a single way of belief system, which makes people assiduous worshippers who do not question the purpose of their behaviours. This God, who constantly appoints chaplains to maintain his existence, sustains the belief systems of societies through these chaplains. To Blake, this God is the source of the problems people are in; the more successful people become in overcoming these problems, the closer they think they approach God. In other words, the way to reach God is not to complain about the obstacles He has set up on the world, but to overcome these obstacles with patience, which supports the Christian view claiming that humanity must suffer for salvation. Nevertheless, to Blake’s God, the situation is the opposite. He describes his God as follows: “God wants not Man to humble himself / This is the trick of ancient Elf” (Blake, 1818/1923b, p. 138). Appropriately, in Blake’s religious outlook, people do not believe in God for fear of punishment or to get a reward from God. Instead, they unify with God only because they love Him and know His blessings (Maniquis, 2009, p. 27). God, who is always with man, gives power to overcome the problems, does not cause problems to test man. Th...