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<p>This study examines William Blake’s <i>Songs of Innocence</i> (1789) and <i>Songs of Experience</i> (1794) as aesthetic and discursive sites in which childhood is constructed, regulated, and reimagined. Moving beyond essentialist conceptions, childhood is approached as a historically contingent category shaped through pedagogical practices, institutional structures, and what Michel Foucault conceptualizes as governmentality. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Blake’s poetry and illuminated engravings, the study explores how visual and verbal elements interact to produce and discipline child subjectivity. The analysis demonstrates that <i>Songs of Innocence</i> constructs childhood as a pastoral and harmonious domain in which moral norms are internalized through affective and aesthetic means, while <i>Songs of Experience</i> exposes the institutional and ideological forces that regulate and constrain this ideal. Particular attention is given to Blake’s illuminated printing as an early form of visual-verbal integration that anticipates the formal and ideological structures of the modern picturebook. In this sense, Blake’s work is read not only as a poetic exploration of childhood, but also as a proto-picturebook form that positions the child as a reader within a carefully organized field of meaning. By situating Blake within contemporary childhood studies, the article argues that literary and visual forms function as pedagogical technologies through which the “idea of the child” is historically produced and maintained. Ultimately, the study highlights the enduring relevance of Blake’s work for understanding how childhood continues to be shaped by subtle and often invisible forms of cultural and institutional power.</p>

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Childhood as a Pedagogical Aesthetic: Governmentality and the Proto-Picturebook in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月25日

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  • Hulusi Geçgel

摘要

This study examines William Blake’s Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) as aesthetic and discursive sites in which childhood is constructed, regulated, and reimagined. Moving beyond essentialist conceptions, childhood is approached as a historically contingent category shaped through pedagogical practices, institutional structures, and what Michel Foucault conceptualizes as governmentality. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Blake’s poetry and illuminated engravings, the study explores how visual and verbal elements interact to produce and discipline child subjectivity. The analysis demonstrates that Songs of Innocence constructs childhood as a pastoral and harmonious domain in which moral norms are internalized through affective and aesthetic means, while Songs of Experience exposes the institutional and ideological forces that regulate and constrain this ideal. Particular attention is given to Blake’s illuminated printing as an early form of visual-verbal integration that anticipates the formal and ideological structures of the modern picturebook. In this sense, Blake’s work is read not only as a poetic exploration of childhood, but also as a proto-picturebook form that positions the child as a reader within a carefully organized field of meaning. By situating Blake within contemporary childhood studies, the article argues that literary and visual forms function as pedagogical technologies through which the “idea of the child” is historically produced and maintained. Ultimately, the study highlights the enduring relevance of Blake’s work for understanding how childhood continues to be shaped by subtle and often invisible forms of cultural and institutional power.