Coleridge and the Nature of Imagination: Evolution, Engagement with the World, and Poetry

Long ago I A Richards remarked that if we are to understand the Imagination, we have to understand how the brain works. Scientists have begun to approach this deep and complex problem in ways that we can not ignore. Coleridge's ideas on the subject belong to another age, but he had the knack of raising questions and performing thought experiments which are still relevant. This book explores the questions and discoveries raised both by Coleridge and by recent scientific research in order to offer fresh and original approaches to the reading of poetry and in particular the reading of Coleridge's major poems, The Ancyent Marinere, Kubla Khan and Christabel. This book offers an interpretation of the role of Imagination in the development of the human consciousness and the vital role poetry plays in our engagement with the world.