Publications
Publication details [#8028]
Mooij, J.J.A. 1993. Fictional Realities: The Uses of Literary Imagination. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. xii, 290 pp.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
Keywords
fiction | imagination | literary studies | literature and science | metaphor | narrativity | poetry | speech act | symbolism | truth
ISBN
9789027222183
Abstract
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.
(Publisher Book Description)
Preface ix
Introduction
Romantic Themes and Later Developments
Fictional Discourse and the Theory of Speech Acts
Fictional Objects
Realism in Fiction
Symbolism and realism
Metaphor, Truth and Poetry
Literature in the Mirror of Her Sister Arts
On the Value of Literature in Relation to Science
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index