Imagining Color

Acclaimed theorist and scholar Elaine Scarry uncovers profound connections between color and our intuitions about mind, spirit, and the immortal through readings of works by Proust, Woolf, and Murasaki, offering fresh insights into the interplay between language and the mysterious image-making power of the mind.

How do writers summon color into being—not only in the worlds they depict, but in the minds of their readers? Unlike the visual arts, literature has no physical medium; its images in...