This seminar explores the development of the concept of imagination in diverse premodern and modern philosophical/theoretical and literary contexts. Emphasis will be placed on Plato, Aristotle, the Neoplatonic philosophers, medieval Christian readers of antiquity, Kant, Fichte, the Romantics, Lacan, Iser, Todorov, and Castoriadis. This seminar will also develop an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by drawing on cognitive sciences and cognitive anthropology.
Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.
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