Research On Literary Imagination: From Theoretical Concepts To Literary Practice

Literary Imagination is one of important topics in literary theory and many research results exist in China’s and western history. Some contemporary literary critics pay much attention on this topic. Contemporary research results about Literary Imagination focus on literary epistemology, literary psychology and language arts and few people study this question from humanism aspect, and so, there is not any systemic result. Literature’s contemporary situation prompt us rethink literary value from all kinds of literary features, including Literary Imagination and it needs more theoretical research. So, research on Literary Imagination should provide theory support for literary value. This paper is based on China’s and western research history of Literary Imagination, especially on contemporary imagination research results. It evolved 3 aspects of humanism features, namely, freeness, transcendence and creativeness. At last I will study the imagination in contemporary literary practice.The prelude mainly introduces this study and methods. The most important question is the perspective of Imagination’s definition and it is the base of this research.Chapter One summarizes the imagination research in China’s and western history.Literary Imagination as a literary phenomenon, attracted many attentions early, and there are many research results about its function and value, but the crisis of Literary Imagination still exists before us. Further and systematic research is necessary.Relatively, China’s imagination theory takes shape earlier, but western theory has a clear route about imagination research. When I summarize the western research results I compare the memory, phantasy, reason, fiction and creation with imagination.In western history people pay much attention on them for their misconception or closely relationship. I classify China’s ancient imagination theory into two groups:shensi system and ganwu system. China’s contemporary critics often compare imagination with shensi but neglect ganwu, I regard it is a gross oversight. In this chapter I also summarize the difference of imagination theory between china and the WEST. The similarities grow out of the intuition of imagination and the differences originate from the differences of China’s and western traditional culture.Chapter Two summarizes contemporary Literary Imagination research results,including 3 kinds of fields. The imagination research in literary epistemology exists inthe two arguments of imaginative thinking. The arguments were around following questions: is there imaginative thinking? How imaginative thinking operates? What is the relationship between imaginative and abstract thinking? Until to the end of the second argument, many people agreed that the imaginative thinking is imagination actually. Changing a title makes the argument continue, but the previous conclusions deepen our knowledge about imagination. Based on psychology research results,literary psychology focuses their research on psychological dynamics of Literary Imagination and its thinking procedure. literary psychology did a good job on classification of imagination, especially on psychoanalysis of literary acceptance. The germ of humanism thought in YangShousen’s Artistic Imagination is suggestive. It is necessary to study Literary Imagination in language arts field. We need imagination in the procedure of from language to image and image expansion threatens the existence of literature. The imaginative language of literature increases expression of language and become an important carrier of emotion.Chapter Three is on the humanism features of Literature Imagination and it’s the heart of this paper. I put this chapter against the background of Literature Is Humanism. as a strategy. Literary Imagination should become a key weapon in the argument of literary freeness. The nature of imagination is integrating representation to create, including representation present or absent. Flying away from presence is the external quality of imagination and it’s the root of freeness. At the same time, when the limitless absence flies to the limit presence, we transcend the reality in a limitless interrelated system. We transcend our one-sidedness and see the limitlessness.Aesthetical transcendence is imaginary transcendence actually. Imagination as a creative capability arises in the integrating procedure that combines representation present or absent to a whole. In the production of literature imagination plays an important role in the creation of new images or typical images. In the procedure of literary acceptance imagination integrates the parts of text or internal and external parts of text. I demonstrate the procedure by some examples in the paper. In the acceptance of literary canon, people comprehend the diversity of life by the freeness,transcendence and creativeness of Literary Imagination. This is way of contemporary spiritual salvation.Chapter Four mainly study the situation of imagination in the contemporary literary practice. Many people agree that contemporary literature lacks imagination partly because the mental violence of our age. How can we shed the preachy? One way is reading which lead us to self-determination. Likewise, the alienation ofpeople’s aesthetic taste cause a crisis of imagination and we can get away by rebuilding literary imaginary community through reading literary canon. Reading strengthens our imagination. Healthy literary criticism must get rid of moral dogmatism. Aesthetic criticism is not aimed at the overflow of cultural criticism and it insists on the nature of literature. The imaginative fire can develop aesthetic criticism to an ideal criticism and only then we can understand other’s existence by knowledge of life.