The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology

Front Cover
JHU Press, Mar 1, 1993 - Literary Criticism - 380 pages

The pioneer of "literary anthropology," Wolfgang Iser presents a wide-ranging and comprehensive exploration of this new field in an attempt to explain the human need for the "particular form of make-believe" known as literature. Ranging from the Renaissance pastoral to Coleridge to Sartre and Beckett, The Fictive and the Imaginary is a distinguished work of scholarship from one of Europe's most respected and influential critics.

From inside the book

Contents

TWO Renaissance Pastoralism as a Paradigm
22
THREE Fiction Thematized in Philosophical Discourse
87
Some Conclusions about Fiction
164
FOUR The Imaginary
171
FIVE Text Play
247
of Imitation and Symbolization 250 Games in
273
SIX Epilogue
281
NOTES
305
INDEX OF NAMES
343
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1993)

Wolfgang Iser, who has taught at leading universities in the United States and Europe, is currently professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Constance.

Bibliographic information