Imagination in the Contemporary World and the Legacy of Romantic Literary Thought
Defining and Using Imagination:
A Legacy of Romanticism to the Modern World
Judyth Vary Baker
imagination– Traditionally, the mental capacity for experiencing, constructing or manipulating ‘mental imagery’ (quasi-perceptual experience). Imagination is also regarded as responsible for fantasy, inventiveness, idiosyncrasy, and creative, original and insightful thought in general, and, sometimes, for a much wider range of mental activities dealing with the non-actual, such as supposing, pretending, ‘seeing as’, thinking of possibilities, and even being mistaken. See representation.
Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
The definition of Imagination, as seen above, seems to represent elements of concept, as well as existing as a term. The word is commonly encountered in the literature, descriptions or studies of Romanticism, or the Romantic Literary Movements, that developed and bloomed in the early-to-mid nineteenth century. The student who is the product of the newer millennia, however, may have a different understanding of “imagination” than that envisioned by the Romantics, just as the word “Romantic” itself may not adequately prepare today’s naive student for the nature of the content of the poetry and literature of the nineteenth century that they might explore, hoping to appropriate Shakespearean or Drydenesque expressions with which to entrance their lovers.
It is important that “imagination” and “Romanticism” be understood as it was by the Romantics. For that reason, I have added the term “satire,” (which I haven’t seen used a great deal in the literature in connection with “imagination” and “Romanticism).in
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