Fictional Realities: The Uses of Literary ImaginationThis 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 |
265 | |
285 | |
Other editions - View all
Fictional Realities: The Uses of Literary Imagination Jan Johann Albinn Mooij No preview available - 1993 |
Fictional Realities: The Uses of Literary Imagination Jan Johann Albinn Mooij No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
according activity aesthetic allegory argued artistic century chapter characteristics characterized cognitive concept connection course creative critical culture discussion Einbildungskraft essay essential etcetera examples existence faculty fantasy Fichte fictional characters fictional discourse fictional story fictional text fictive objects function Hegel human ideas illocutionary act illocutionary force images imagination implied important instance intention interpretation involved J.L. Austin kind literal literary literary realism literature lyrical poetry magic matter means mental Mimesis mind modern moral Moreover narrative narrator nature Nelson Goodman Nonetheless Novalis novel particular philosophy poem poet poetic metaphor poetry present pretending question reader real world reality reason reference relevant remarks representation Rilke role Romanticism Sartre sculpture seems sense Sherlock Holmes Solger specific speech-act story-telling strophe suggest Surely symbolism telling tendency things tion true truth unreality utterance visual arts W.B. Yeats W.H. Auden whereas Yeats