Comparative Study of William Blake's illuminated books and Alan Moore's graphic novels

Abstract

Blake and Moore have a similar idea of visionary imagination as the power that divinises the self and expands it beyond social convention. The aim of this thesis is to situate the authors in the different moments they occupy in the process of secularisation. The second objective of this thesis is to define the characteristics of the natural supernatural in Blake and Moore and the differences between their attitudes towards the cultural, philosophical and social circumstances in which they propose their versions of re-enchantment. The third objective of this thesis is to explore the notion of nature in the work of Blake and Moore to show that there is a discursive aspect of nature that fits into rational structures and another excluded aspect. This thesis analyses how these two authors present the possibility of the regeneration and show that it depends on the transformation of the excluded aspect of nature into positive energies, rather than on a transcendent agency. The comparative analysis reveals the ideas of transformation of nature and of the mind both authors propose, and the imaginative and visionary modes of perceptions that would lead to this change. Finally, this thesis discovers the particular interpretation of Blake Moore creates and its key elements. For this purpose, the thesis explores the Fall in Blake and Moore as a) a disfunction of the faculties (embodied in mythical figures), b) the conventional discourses of religion, science, philosophy and c) a mixture of these.