Imagination and Idealism in John Updike's Fiction

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Modern, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book Imagination and Idealism in John Updike's Fiction by Michial Farmer, Boydell & Brewer
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michial Farmer ISBN: 9781782049593
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Publication: March 15, 2017
Imprint: Camden House Language: English
Author: Michial Farmer
ISBN: 9781782049593
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Publication: March 15, 2017
Imprint: Camden House
Language: English

This book looks past the frequently discussed autobiographical nature of John Updike's fiction to consider the role in Updike's work of the most powerful and peculiar human faculty: the imagination. Michial Farmer argues that, while the imagination is for Updike a means of human survival and a necessary component of human flourishing, it also has a destructive, darker side, in which it shades into something like philosophical idealism. Here the mind constructs the world around it and then, unhelpfully, imposes this created world between itself and the "real world." In other words, Updike is not himself an idealist but sees idealism as a persistent temptation for the artistic imagination. Farmer builds his argument on the metaphysics of Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist thinker who has been largely neglected in discussions of Updike's aesthetics. The book demonstrates the degree to which Updike was an original and powerful thinker and not the callow sensationalist that he is sometimes accused of being. Michial Farmer is Assistant Professor of English at Crown College, Saint Bonifacius, Minnesota.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book looks past the frequently discussed autobiographical nature of John Updike's fiction to consider the role in Updike's work of the most powerful and peculiar human faculty: the imagination. Michial Farmer argues that, while the imagination is for Updike a means of human survival and a necessary component of human flourishing, it also has a destructive, darker side, in which it shades into something like philosophical idealism. Here the mind constructs the world around it and then, unhelpfully, imposes this created world between itself and the "real world." In other words, Updike is not himself an idealist but sees idealism as a persistent temptation for the artistic imagination. Farmer builds his argument on the metaphysics of Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist thinker who has been largely neglected in discussions of Updike's aesthetics. The book demonstrates the degree to which Updike was an original and powerful thinker and not the callow sensationalist that he is sometimes accused of being. Michial Farmer is Assistant Professor of English at Crown College, Saint Bonifacius, Minnesota.

More books from Boydell & Brewer

Cover of the book The Career of an Eighteenth-Century Kapellmeister by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Georgian Gothic by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book A Literary History of the Low Countries by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Kafka after Kafka by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book The Cistercians in the Middle Ages by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Post-Wall German Cinema and National History by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Mandela's Kinsmen by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Debussy's Mélisande by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Composing for Japanese Instruments by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Presenting the Romans by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book A Companion to Pablo Neruda by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book ALT 36: Queer Theory in Film & Fiction by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Child Workers and Industrial Health in Britain, 1780-1850 by Michial Farmer
Cover of the book Speaking the Piano by Michial Farmer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy