The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance

by Eva T. H. Brann

Overview

In this book, Eva Brann sets out no less a task than to assess the meaning of imagination in its multifarious expressions throughout western history. The result is one of those rare achievements that will make The World of the Imagination a standard reference.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847677764
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/16/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	824
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.16(h) x 1.79(d)

About the Author

Eva T.H. Brann is the dean of St. John's College in Maryland.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Part I: Philosophy: The Nature of the Imagination Chapter 1: Ancient Writers Chapter 2: Medieval Writers Chapter 3: Modern Writers Chapter 4: Twentieth-Century Writers (with Debates and Developments) Chapter 5: Conclusions: Why an Image-Forming Imagination Should, After All, Be Affirmed Part II: Psychology: The Having of Imagery Chapter 1: Cognitive Science: The Setting of Imagery-Investigations Chapter 2: The Science of Mental Imagery: Cognitive Psychology Chapter 3: The Science of Memory: Storage and Retrieval of Visual Imagery Chapter 4: Children’s Imagery Chapter 5: Various Imagery-Topics Chapter 6: The Organs of the Imagination: Eye and Brain Part III: Logic: The Being of Images Chapter 1: Real Images: Real Depictions of Real Objects Chapter 2: Mental Images: Unreal Pictures of Real Objects Chapter 3: Imaginary Images: Unreal Pictures of Unreal Objects Part IV: Literature: The Translation of Imagining Chapter 1: Visions into Words and Words into Vision Chapter 2: Literary Creation: Imagining Apotheosized Chapter 3: Literary Language: Two Figures of Speech Chapter 4: Literary Imagining: Two Genres of Fiction Part V: Depiction: The Theater of Imagining Chapter 1: The Space of Imagining Chapter 2: Thoughtful Space: The Geometry of Imagining Chapter 3: Aesthetic Space: Pictures and Paintings Part VI: The Worldly Imagination: Imaginary and Imaginative Visions Chapter 1: Theology: Contrary Estimations of the Imagination Chapter 2: No-Places and Past Times: Imaginary Worlds Chapter 3: Places and Passions: The Imaginative World Conclusion: Imaginative Projection and Thoughtful Penetration: Transparence and Transcendence Coda: The Life of the Imagination Index

Editorial Reviews

This book is at once the most definitive and the most comprehensive book of its kind ever written. For anyone who wants to know how imagination has been regarded in Western philosophical and psychological, literary, and religious thought, this text is an indispensable resource, a treasure-trove of insight and knowledge.

Review of Metaphysics

Brann. .. provides a work of astounding amplitude. She is, throughout, perspicacious, erudite, clear, down to earth, crisp, and lively, and she is not afraid to take firm, definite, and sometimes controversial positions. Although there are myriad works on the imagination, there are not any that approach Brann's book in its encyclopedic and insightful coverage. This book will be, for many years to come, the main source for any work on the imagination. It should be in every college and public library.

Choice Reviews

A scholarly and literary achievement of major proportions.. .. vintage work, the sort of even-handed and tempered scholarship we have come to expect from [Brann].. .. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter (25 in all) are enough to astound any reader. The scope of this study and the detail of the investigation are truly remarkable.. .. Brann's book is a

WORLD BANK

Its scope is breathtaking, and its argument brilliant.. .. Readers will be seduced into delightful engagement and will emerge enlightened, enlarged, and refreshed.. .. Brann not only writes about meditation, she is herself a wise and skillful mediator between the reader and the world of imagination. Her book is a monumental contribution to scholarship.

Christianity and Literature

Eva Brann's book is a very instructive and recommendable interdisciplinary inquiry into the multiple aspects of imagination in the domain of the humanities.

Utopian Studies Interdi

A model of organization.

New Vico Studies

A splendid achievement, a life's work...a monumental contribution to scholarship.

Jonathan Imber

Brann. .. provides a work of astounding amplitude. She is, throughout, perspicacious, erudite, clear, down to earth, crisp, and lively, and she is not afraid to take firm, definite, and sometimes controversial positions. Although there are myriad works on the imagination, there are not any that approach Brann's book in its encyclopedic and insightful coverage. This book will be, for many years to come, the main source for any work on the imagination. It should be in every college and public library.

Choice

A splendid achievement, a life's work...a monumental contribution to scholarship.--Jonathan Imber, Wellesley College

A model of organization.--New Vico Studies

Its scope is breathtaking, and its argument brilliant. . . . Readers will be seduced into delightful engagement and will emerge enlightened, enlarged, and refreshed. . . . Brann not only writes about meditation, she is herself a wise and skillful mediator between the reader and the world of imagination. Her book is a monumental contribution to scholarship.--Christianity and Literature

From the Publisher

Brann. .. provides a work of astounding amplitude. She is, throughout, perspicacious, erudite, clear, down to earth, crisp, and lively, and she is not afraid to take firm, definite, and sometimes controversial positions. Although there are myriad works on the imagination, there are not any that approach Brann's book in its encyclopedic and insightful coverage. This book will be, for many years to come, the main source for any work on the imagination. It should be in every college and public library.

CHOICE

A scholarly and literary achievement of major proportions. . . . vintage work, the sort of even-handed and tempered scholarship we have come to expect from [Brann]. . . . The bibliographies at the end of each chapter (25 in all) are enough to astound any reader. The scope of this study and the detail of the investigation are truly remarkable. . . . Brann's book is a

WORLD

A scholarly and literary achievement of major proportions. . . . vintage work, the sort of even-handed and tempered scholarship we have come to expect from [Brann]. . . . The bibliographies at the end of each chapter (25 in all) are enough to astound any reader. The scope of this study and the detail of the investigation are truly remarkable. . . . Brann's book is a

World

This book is at once the most definitive and the most comprehensive book of its kind ever written. For anyone who wants to know how imagination has been regarded in Western philosophical and psychological, literary, and religious thought, this text is an indispensable resource, a treasure-trove of insight and knowledge.

The Review Of Metaphysics

Imagination adds to reality and casts light on it. It also threatens us with error. Brann's massive assault on its mysteries advances an old thesis: ``imagination . . . is a faculty or power for internal representations which . . . are image-like and represent absent objects as present . . . by means of resemblance.'' She carefully considers more than 450 authors. Still, there are missing figures, including Edward Douglas Fawcett, whose World As Imagination (1916) rallies those who think imagination the key to reality. The enemies and friends of images alike (i.e., logicians who questioned the existence of images and romantics who overrated them) perhaps loom too large in this book. And perhaps those who see imagination as the necessary link between a world that is always fuzzy and our logical ideas of it deserve more space. Yet there are plums here for plain readers. No sane writer will approach the concept of imagination before consulting this work by a 30-year veteran of the St. John's College ``great books'' program.--Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa

Library Journal