Description
Book SynopsisThis transdisciplinary project represents the most comprehensive study of imagination to date. The eclectic group of international scholars who comprise this volume propose bold and innovative theoretical frameworks for (re-) conceptualizing imagination in all of its divergent forms. Imagination and Art: Explorations in Contemporary Theory explores the complex nuances, paradoxes, and aporias related to the plethora of artistic mediums in which the human imagination manifests itself. As a fundamental attribute of our species, which other organisms also seem to possess with varying degrees of sophistication, imagination is the very fabric of what it means to be human into which everything is woven. This edited collection demonstrates that imagination is the resin that binds human civilization together for better or worse.
Trade Review'At the end of this wonderful journey through the theories of imagination and the various types of imaginaries, one is certainly fascinated by a polysemic view of the concept of imagination. Moser and Sukla have managed to find the best way to organise and channel a multitude of expert opinions towards a single goal: the revival of interest in the subject of imagination and its profound meaning in human life.' - Carlo Alessandro Caccia, in: enthymema (2021).
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Part 1: Historical Imagination and Judgement 1 Imagination and Art in Classical Greece and Rome David Konstan 2 Poetic Imagination and Cultural Memory in Greek History and Mythology Claude Calame 3 History, Imagination and the Narrative of Loss: Philosophical Questions about the Task of Historical Judgment Allen Speight Part 2: Gendered Imagination 4 Imagining the Captive Amazon: Myth, Art, and History Adrienne Mayor 5 Gender and Imagination: A Feminist Analysis of Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men< Reshmi Mukherjee Part 3: Imagination and Ethics 6 Psychoanalysis, Imagination, and Imaginative Resistance: A Genesis of the Post-freudian World Carol Steinberg Gould 7 Craving Sameness, Accepting Difference: Imaginative Possibilities for Solidarity and Social Justice Chandra Kavanagh 8 The Importance of Imagination/Phantasia for the Moral Psychology of Virtue Ethics David Collins 9 The Infanticidal Logic of Mimesis as Horizon of the Imaginable A. Samuel Kimball 10 The Relationship Between Imagination and Christian Prayer Michel Dion Part 4: Phenomenological and Epistemological Perspectives 11 The Work Texts Do: Toward a Phenomenology of Imagining Imaginatively Charles Altieri 12 Conceiving and Imagining: Examples and Lessons Jody Azzouni 13 The Dance of Perception: The Role of the Imagination in Simone Weil’s Early Epistemology Warren Heiti 14 One Imagination or Many? or None? Rob van Gerwen 15 Nietzsche on Theatricality and Imagination Roderick Nicholls Part 5: Postmodern Perspectives 16 Simulacral Imagination and the Nexus of Power in a Post-marxist Universe Keith Moser 17 Jean-François Lyotard, the Radical Imagination, and the Aesthetic of the Differend Victor E. Taylor 18 The Possibility of a Productive Imagination in the Work of Deleuze and Guattari Erik Bormanis Part 6:Imagination in Scientific Modeling and Biosemiotics 19 Of Predators and Prey: Imagination in Scientific Modeling Fiora Salis 20 Geometry and the Imagination Justin Humphreys 21 Art and Imagination: The Evolution of Meanings Wendy Wheeler Part 7: Aesthetic Perspectives 22 Image, Image-making and Imagination Dominic Gregory 23 Depiction, Imagination, and Photography Jiri Benovksy 24 Imagination and Identification in Photography and Film David Fenner 25 Imagination in Musical Composition, Performance, and Listening: John Cage’s Blurring of Boundaries in Music and Life in 4′33″ Deborah Fillerup Weagel 26 Kinesthetic Imagining and Dance Appreciation Renee M. Conroy 27 Imagination in Games: Formulation, Re-actualization and Gaining a World Ton Kruse 28 “‘I AM not mad, most noble Festus.’ No. But I have been”: Possible Worlds Theory and the Complex, Imaginative Worlds of Sarban’s The Sound of his Horn Riyukta Raghunath Part 8: Non-western Perspectives 29 The Deep Frivolity of Life: An Indian Aesthetic Phenomenology of Fun Arindam Chakrabarti 30 The Symbolic Force of Rocks in the Chinese Imagination Yanping Gao 31 Magic from the Repressed: Imagination and Memories in Contemporary Japanese Literary Narratives Amy Lee 32 The Metaphysics of Creativity: Imagination in Sufism, from the Qurʾan into Ibn al-ʿArabi’ Ali Hussain Part 9: Artists Reflect on Imagination: An Imaginative Epilogue 33 Free Thinking about Imagination: How is it to Imagine What Imagination is? Marion Renauld 34 The Nativity of Images Ton Kruse 35 Signal: Poetry and Imagination Jesse Graves 36 The Echo of Voices Umar Timol 37 Poem, Liberty Louise Dupré 38 Why to Wish for the Witch Lisa Fay Coutley Index
