William Blake – post-classicist

Recently I have been posting thoughts about the current state of Classical Studies, asking: What might be done regarding the complicity of Classical Studies in ideological standpoints, including cultural chauvinism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism? I am much taken with dramatic techniques involving focus on characters and personae, avatars and ghosts, figuration and voices: How might we…

Olympics opening – (in)tangible heritage

London – the opening of the 30th Olympiad A bucolic pastoral green and pleasant land succumbing to dark satanic mills, in William Blake’s vision, homage also to Tolkein’s pitting of Hobbiton against Isengard’s tower; Shakespeare’s Tempest declaimed by Brunel on the slopes of a druidic oak-toppped Glastonbury Tor; dreams of Peter Pan and Mary Poppins;…