Synopses & Reviews
This book is the first investigation of Coleridge's responses to his dreams and to debates on the nature of dreaming among poets, philosophers and scientists in the Romantic period. Coleridge wrote and read extensively on the subject, but his diverse and original ideas have hitherto received little attention. Avoiding purely biographical or psychoanalytic approaches, Jennifer Ford reveals instead a rich historical context for the ways in which the most mysterious workings of the Romantic imagination were explored and understood.
Synopsis
The first investigation of Coleridgeâs responses to his dreams and to contemporary poetic, philosophical and scientific debates on the nature of dreaming. It offers a rich historical context for the ways in which the most mysterious workings of the Romantic imagination were explored and understood.
Description
Includes bibliographical indexes (p. 235-253) and index.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Editorial symbols used in manuscript and published notebooks; Introduction; 1. Dreaming in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; 2. Dramatic dreaming spaces; 3. The language of dreams; 4. Genera and species of dreams; 5. Nightmares; 6. The mysterious problem of dreams; 7. Translations of dream and body; 8. The dreaming medical imagination; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.