Philosophy, Dreaming and the Literary Imagination

Dr Michaela Schrage-Früh is a lecturer at the University of Limerick, Ireland and at the University of Mainz, Germany. Her areas of academic interest include literature and dreams, contemporary poetry and fiction, and women and ageing studies. She is the author of Emerging Identities: Myth, Nation and Gender in the Poetry of Eavan Boland, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Medbh McGuckian (2004).

• Contents.- Acknowledgments.- 1. Introduction.- 2. 1. Toward an Aesthetic of Dreaming. From Freud to Neuroscience. Evolutionary Perspectives on Dreaming and Waking Fictions.- 3. 2. Dreaming and Waking Imagination. The Spectrum of Imagination. The Dreamer as Author, the Author as Dreamer. The Dreamer as Reader, the Reader as Dreamer.- 4. 3. Dreaming Fictions, Writing Dreams. The Diversity of Dream Types. The 'Language' of Dreams.Translating the 'Language' of Dream.- 5. 4. Conjuring up the Dream: Three Literary Case Studies. Writing a Dream: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled(1995) Dreaming of Wonderland: Clare Boylan, Black Baby (1988) Dreaming Up the Past: John Banville, The Sea (2005).- 6. Conclusion.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.

“Philosophy, Dreaming, and Literary Imagination is a treasure trove of theories and perspectives on a topic that will, we can hope, receive more attention in the future. It is particularly exciting to have Schrage-Früh’s interdisciplinary approach, which not only delivers insights itself but also models how we might profitably do such border crossing.” (Stephen T. Asma, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, Vol. 1 (2), 2017)