Destructive Potential of the Imagination

dc.contributor.authorGifford, Don
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-11T07:07:42Z
dc.date.available2020-09-11T07:07:42Z
dc.date.issued2020-06-28
dc.description.abstractTwo contrary concepts dominate our understanding about human imagination—this all-but-undefinable human faculty. While one tradition contrasts the creativity of the imagination, on the one hand, and the perception of reality, on the other—often suggesting that fact (reality) and fiction (imagination) are mutually exclusive—the counter-tradition defines imagination as integral to the creation/perception of reality, what Edith Cobb calls the “preconfigurative imagination.” Drawing on these theoretical-philosophical considerations, the essay takes an interdisciplinary approach to probe the inherently adverse nature and the destructive potential of the human imagination in action. With examples from literature, cultural history, politics, and diplomacy the analysis offers the case in point and demonstrates the ways destructive imagination, impervious to rational argument, may render our ability void; as Henry James put it in “The Art of Fiction,” “to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implication of things, to judge the piece by the pattern.” (ÉM)en
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationHungarian Journal of English and American Studies, Vol. 26 No. 1 (2020) ,
dc.identifier.eissn2732-0421
dc.identifier.issn1218-7364
dc.identifier.issue1
dc.identifier.jtitleHungarian Journal of English and American Studies
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2437/294947en
dc.identifier.volume26
dc.languageen
dc.relationhttps://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/hjeas/article/view/7391
dc.rights.accessOpen Access
dc.rights.ownerHungarian Journal of English and American Studies
dc.subjecttheories of imagination and perceptionen
dc.subjectcreative imaginationen
dc.subjectsentimental romanceen
dc.subjectmelodramaen
dc.titleDestructive Potential of the Imaginationen
dc.typefolyóiratcikkhu
dc.typearticleen
Fájlok
Eredeti köteg (ORIGINAL bundle)
Megjelenítve 1 - 1 (Összesen 1)
Nincs kép
Név:
PDF
Méret:
667.96 KB
Formátum:
Adobe Portable Document Format