Primary and secondary imagination

Project for the course E-205Literary and Cultural Criticism..

Group Name : The Seizers

Captain: Tamanna Taher (Roll : 881)

Members :1. Sanjida Afroz Tithi (885)2. Rifath Afrin Anaholy Easha (2285)3. Ruhina Akhter (2517)4. Shubhasish Roy (901)

Primary and Secondary Imagination……….

What is Imagination…Umm! What

is Imagination?

I can’t understand

it !! It seems hard !

Definition of Imagination in General…

Imagination is called the faculty of imagining, is the

ability to form new images and sensations in the mind. …

Well, now it seems easy…A general

definition will help a lot to read the

concept of Imagination according to Coleridge..!

Coleridge’s Concept of Imagination….

“The imagination then, I consider eitheras primary or secondary. The primaryimagination I hold to be the living powerand prime agent of all human perception,And as a repetition in the find mind of the infinite I Am.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge;“Biographia Literaria”

Imagination According to Coleridge….

Primary Imagination….According to Coleridge,

Imagination has two

forms primary and

secondary. The

primary imagination

is the power behind

what Coleridge

elsewhere calls “the

mystry of perception”.

Receiving Sensory DataPrimary imagination is merely the power of receiving impression of the external world through the senses. It is an involuntary act

of the mind, the human mind receives impressions and sensations from the

outside world. It is in this way that clear and coherent perception becomes

possible.

Primary Imagination Categorizes Data to Make Sense of the Experience of the WorldPrimary Imagination conveys

the power of receiving

experiences from the external

world. Primary Imagination is

universal. As it is possessed by

all it happens unconsciously.

Primary Imagination receives

experiences from external

through the interaction of “object” and “subject”.

Secondary Imagination….

Now what is the secondary

imagination??!!

Secondary Imagination…

Secondary Imagination is more active and

conscious. It requires an effort to the will and conscious effort. It

selects the raw material and reshapes and

models.

Coleridge’s Concept of Secondary Imagination..

“The Secondary I consideras an echo of the former, co-existing with the consciouswill, yet still as identical with The primary in the kind of itsand differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation.It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, inorder to re-create; or where thisProcess is rendered impossible, yetStill, at all even as all objects (as objects) are essentially fixed anddead.”

Dissolving the Data…Secondary Imagination reshapes

the data. Thus it is a “a shaping and modifying power.” By receiving and

categorizing data it creates something new. For example : water

and sugar.

Recreating a New Out of the Old…..

Secondary imagination is a creative force. It

recreates the experiences that

primary imagination supplies to it. According to dissolves and

diffuses in order tore-create.

Fancy…..

Now what is Fancy??!

Fancy…. Fancy is employed for the task of “passive” and “mechanical”.

Fancy is concerned with the mechanical

operations of the mind.

Coleridge’s Concept of Fancy…“Fancy has no other counters toPlay with but fixities and definites.The fancy is no other than a mode ofMemory emancipated from the order Of time and space; and blended, and modified by that empirical phenomenonon of the will which we express by the word choice. But equally with theordinary memory it must receive all its materials ready made from the lawOf association.”

Associating the Data…One can use fancy as

power to create memory mosaic or colleges. It rearranges what we

experience. It associates data to create something

new.

Re-creating an Entity Which is New….

Fancy creates an new entity by associating datas. It

emancipates from the order of time and space. So fancy is capable to provide a new

entity.

The cartoon series of Aladdin and his magic lamp is also an imagination of the maker. It is one kind of secondary imagination. Thedirector gathered the data and thus reshaped it.