num_pages: 304
description: Dreaming by the Book explores the almost miraculous processes by which poets and writers teach us the work of imaginative creation. Writers from Homer to Heaney instruct us in the art of mental composition, even as their poems progress. Just as painters understand paint, composers musical instruments, and sculptors stone or metal, verbal artists understand the only material in which their creations will get made--the back-lit tissue of the human brain. In her brilliant synthesis of literary criticism, philosophy, and cognitive psychology, Elaine Scarry explores the principal practices by which writers bring things to life for their readers.
language: English
title: Dreaming by the Book
titlecomplete: Dreaming by the Book
genres: Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Criticism, Writing, Poetry, Nonfiction, Theory
ratings_count: 111
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism
publisher: Princeton University Press