Between the waking and dreaming states of consciousness there is the imagination, the cornerstone... more Between the waking and dreaming states of consciousness there is the imagination, the cornerstone of all creative endeavour. This thesis first of all considers the philosophical relationship between the poetic imagination and dreams as it has been explored by Gaston Bachelard. From this point of departure, I seek to show how these themes of the ‘poetic’ and the ‘dreamlike’ have been worked through by various figures in early film theory such as Jean Epstein and Maya Deren. One of the main contentions raised early on is that the ‘poetic’ in film is understood primarily as an approach to temporal experience. Similarly, that which is ‘dreamlike’ in films does not necessarily have to be related to a dreaming subject or a dream sequence of some kind. I am using the term ‘oneiric’ in a holistic way to help define both this ambiguous group of films as well as the underlying interrelationship between dreams and the poetic imagination. The main corpus looks at a range of contemporary documentary films that have, in their own way, evoked the qualities of the ‘oneiric imagination’, more often than not via a blending of fiction and nonfiction.
Between the waking and dreaming states of consciousness there is the imagination, the cornerstone... more Between the waking and dreaming states of consciousness there is the imagination, the cornerstone of all creative endeavour. This thesis first of all considers the philosophical relationship between the poetic imagination and dreams as it has been explored by Gaston Bachelard. From this point of departure, I seek to show how these themes of the ‘poetic’ and the ‘dreamlike’ have been worked through by various figures in early film theory such as Jean Epstein and Maya Deren. One of the main contentions raised early on is that the ‘poetic’ in film is understood primarily as an approach to temporal experience. Similarly, that which is ‘dreamlike’ in films does not necessarily have to be related to a dreaming subject or a dream sequence of some kind. I am using the term ‘oneiric’ in a holistic way to help define both this ambiguous group of films as well as the underlying interrelationship between dreams and the poetic imagination. The main corpus looks at a range of contemporary documentary films that have, in their own way, evoked the qualities of the ‘oneiric imagination’, more often than not via a blending of fiction and nonfiction.
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