Description

Dreams frighten and attract us because of their 'otherness', theirmanifolddeviations from the world we know when we are awake. Oneof the most consistently used techniques of coming to terms with thisotherness has been the attempt to 'make sense' of dreams, to considerand portray them as messages which can and have to be deciphered.On the other hand (and much more rarely), dreams have been consideredas a welcome source of entertainment, or as a key instrumentto expand the limitations of a rational and conventional world view.This book analyses aspects of this dialectic in factual dream reportsand in fictional representations of the dream in literature, film, music,and painting. Examples are taken from a great variety of cultures andhistorical periods. Their authors and artists include: Adorno, Agualusa,Andreas-Salomé, Apollinaire, Artmann, Beckmann, Benjamin,Breton, Carroll, Carter, Diderot, Droste-Hülshoff, Flaubert, Goethe,Gondry, Grandville, Ji Yun, Johannot, Kafka, Keller, Klinger, Kubin,Li Gongzuo, Liu E, Ma Jian, Meyrink, Michaux, Minnelli, Montaigne,Mora, Ofenbauer, Okri, Oppenheim, Plath, Proust, Pushkin, Rousseau,Schopenhauer, Scott, Seghers, Sorel, Soseki, Wagner, Walser,Wang Jian, Weiner, Wu Jianren, Yuan Mei, Zschokke, and many others.