Fictional Realities: The Uses of Literary Imagination

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John Benjamins Publishing, 1993 - Literary Criticism - 290 pages
This book is a study of the role of the imagination. It focuses on the imaginative use of language in literature (poetry and narrative prose); but it also touches on some more comprehensive issues, for the questions it discusses are questions regarding the relationship between mind, reality and unreality. The first two chapters survey the thinking about the imagination in the history of philosophy. The main trends and the main problems are discussed, particularly in respect of the (positive or negative) evaluation of imagination. The subsequent chapters investigate the role of the imagination from a closer point of view. How is it that imagination appears in literary art? Central topics of discussion are the nature of narrativity, of fictional discourse and fictional objects, of realistic fiction, of symbolism and metaphor. Moreover, the similarities (both real and imagined) between literature and the other arts are explored. In all chapters attention is paid to the problem of the value of art and literary imagination. The last chapter addresses this issue head-on. In particular, it attempts to define the value of literature in relation to science.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
From Plato to Hegel
7
II Romantic Themes and Later Developments
31
The Minimal Conditions of a Story
57
IV Fictional Discourse and the Theory of Speech Acts
81
V Fictional Objects
105
VI Realism in Fiction
125
VII Symbolism and Realism
149
VIII Metaphor Truth and Poetry
171
IX Literature in the Mirror of Her Sister Arts
207
X On the Value of Literature in Relation to Science
237
Epilogue
259
Bibliography
265
Index
285
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