Coleridge and the Nature of Imagination: Evolution, Engagement with the World, and Poetry

by D. Ward

Overview

Examining a range of Coleridge's writings, this book uses recent scientific research to understand how we have evolved to make mental representations of the counterfactual, how such transformative essays in Imagination have enabled humans to survive, to prosper and to express themselves in the sciences, the arts and particularly in poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137362612
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/22/2013
Edition description:	2013
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Ward, now retired, was a Lecturer in English at the Universities of Warwick and Dundee. He has also taught at the University of Natal, MacGill University and the University of Malaya. His publications include T S Eliot, Between Two Worlds (1973); Jonathan Swift: An Introductory Essay (1973); Chronicles of Darkness (1989), as well as articles in Essays in Criticism, Delta, The London Magazine, Modern Language Review and Shakespeare Quarterly.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Acknowledgements vii

List of Abbreviations viii

Introduction 1

1 Feeling, Reason, Thought and Language 5

2 'Something One and Indivisible' 19

3 'The Greenland Wizard' 34

4 'The Whole Soul of Man' 52

5 The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere 71

6 Kubla Khan 130

7 Christabel 151

8 Conclusion: Transformation and Evolution 208

Notes 227

Bibliography 242

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

Coleridge and the Nature of Imagination contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the intersections of Romantic-era literature and science through an extended conversation between Coleridge’s theory of the imagination and present-day discussions about the nature of the mind. ... Coleridge and the Nature of Imagination advocates for literature as a vital counterpart to science in theorizing the relationship of human beings to the rest of the material world.” (Allison Dushane, The Coleridge Bulletin, Vol. 50, 2017)

'This is an engaging and persuasive study, accessible and useful to those familiar with Romantic literature. It will be particularly enjoyed by those with an interest in the history of the human mind.' - Jessica Roberts, The BARS Review

From the Publisher