Annalise Volpone on Imagination and the pregnant mind in William Blake’s cosmogony

In his early prophetic works, William Blake presents his own creation myth, which reinterprets Genesis and critically examines contemporary medical discourse on generation and birth.In this talk Annalise Volpone explores a specific trope that emerges from Blake’s depiction of imagination and (artistic) creation: partus mentis, the parturition of the mind. This concept serves both as a metaphor for describing imagination and creativity, and as the process through which the Human Form Divine is revealed. Partus mentisoriginates from classical tradition, including mythology and Plato’s philosophy. Traces of this tradition appear in Blake’s own reworking of the metaphor, where he also responds to medical theories and practices regarding generation and life. Through partus mentis, Blake reinforces the analogy between the womb and the brain, which was commonly employed in the medical and literary fields in the long eighteenth century.

Annalisa Volpone is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Perugia. She specializes on modernism and romanticism; her research includes the intersections between literature and medicine in the Romantic period. She is currently working on a monograph on birth metaphors and imagination in William Blake.