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Fancy and Imagination

Coleridge's Biographia Literaria was a significant work of literary criticism that discussed the elements of writing and what constitutes genius. In the work, Coleridge divides the "mind" into two faculties - Imagination and Fancy. He sees Imagination as the vital force that brings the dead, fixed objects of the world to life through a poet's work, by sustaining and modifying images. In contrast, Fancy is merely the mechanical shuffling of sense data and memory. Coleridge believes true poetic genius arises from Imagination, which has the power to idealize and unify aspects of the world into a harmonious whole.

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1K views

Fancy and Imagination

Coleridge's Biographia Literaria was a significant work of literary criticism that discussed the elements of writing and what constitutes genius. In the work, Coleridge divides the "mind" into two faculties - Imagination and Fancy. He sees Imagination as the vital force that brings the dead, fixed objects of the world to life through a poet's work, by sustaining and modifying images. In contrast, Fancy is merely the mechanical shuffling of sense data and memory. Coleridge believes true poetic genius arises from Imagination, which has the power to idealize and unify aspects of the world into a harmonious whole.

Uploaded by

Geetanjali Joshi
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FANCY AND IMAGINATION

Coleridge
Coleridge (1772-1834) co-authored with
Wordsworth the famous Lyrical
Ballads. A distinguished poet and critic, his
Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical
Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions (1817) is
one of the most significant treatises
on the nature of poetry and the poet.
Coleridge clearly exemplifies the shift in critical
focus in the early nineteenth
century, from the poem to the character of the poet,
from the rules and the conventions
of poetry to the activity of poem-making,



The Biographia Literaria was one of Coleridge's
main critical studies. In this work, he discussed the
elements of writing and what writing should be to be
considered genius.
Rejected the notion of mind as a tabula rasa or
clean slate
mind was a tabula rasa on which external
experiences and sense impressions were
imprinted, stored, recalled, and combined through a
process of association.
Coleridge divided the "mind" into two distinct
faculties. He labeled these the "Imagination" and
"Fancy."
To Coleridge the true poet is characterized by poetic
genius (262), what he later calls poetic IMAGINATION
(262). Coleridge then describes what goes on in the
poets mind when a poem is being created.
Imagination, he says, sustains and modifies the
images, thoughts, and emotions of the poets own mind
The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the
whole soul of man into activity. . . . He diffuses a tone
and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses,
each into each, by that synthetic and magical power, to
which we have exclusively appropriated the name of
imagination
Imagination is the SOUL that is everywhere, and in
each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent
whole

In Chapter 13, Coleridge divides the Imagination into
two parts: the Primary Imagination and Secondary
Imagination.
Most critics find this distinction less significant than the
words he uses to suggest how poetic Imagination works
to create a poems organic unity.
Coleridge writes that poetic imagination dissolves,
diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate; . . . it struggles
to idealize and to unify. It is essentially vital, even as all
objects (as objects) [being imitated] are essentially fixed
and dead
The idea here is that everything is the world is dead
(263), and only the poets Imagination can bring aspects
of the world alive, which is the meaning of the word
which Coleridge uses, vital
FANCY ACCORDING TO COLERIDGE
The discussion of Fancy and Imagination is
Coleridges attempt to distinguish and define those
faculties that are the source of all mental activity,
including the creative.
He dismisses Fancy as the mere shuffling of sense
data and memory by means of ones talent; such
mechanical shuffling produces creatures not found
in nature, such as unicorns.

IMAGINATION ACCORDING TO COLERIDGE
The IMAGINATION then, I consider either as primary, or
secondary.
The primary IMAGINATION I hold to be the living Power
and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a
repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation
in the infinite I AM.
The secondary Imagination I consider as an echo of the
former, co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as
identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and
differing only in degree, and in the mode of operation. It
dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate; or
where this process is rendered impossible, yet still at all
events it struggles to idealise and unify. It is essentially
vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially
fixed and dead.

FANCY, on the contrary, has no other counters to
play with, but fixities and definite.
The Fancy is indeed no other than a mode of
Memory emancipated from the order of time and
space; while it is blended with, and modified by that
empirical phenomenon of the will, which we
express by the word CHOICE.
But equally with the ordinary memory the Fancy
must receive all its materials ready made from the
law of association.

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