The Imagination - I. A. Richards

The Imagination

- I. A. Richards

            

            According to I. A. Richards there are six different and distinct sense of the word ‘Imagination’. Richards has discussed various meanings and concepts of the same word and considered the same concept in the most important.

Six senses of Imagination

             If we take all the parts of imagination separately,

 1. The production of vivid images and that too visuals.

 2. Imagination means use of figurative language and the wholeness of experience along with its variety. 

3. In a narrower sense, it is the sympathetic reproduction of other people’s state of mind, particularly their emotional state. 

4. Inventiveness, that means bringing together elements which are not ordinarily connected, is another sense.

5. Ordering of experience in a relevant manner, value consideration are implied, but the value may be limited or conditional. 

6. The most important one is the synthetic and the magical power to which the name “imagination” is given.

1. Production of Image

                      

           The first concept of imagination is production of image. It is the basic as well as the most difficult part of the process of imagination.

It has a sense of novelty and a sense of freshness with, 

1 old and familiar object

2 more than usual state of emotion

3 more than usual order (not in usual presentation)

4 It has the power to delight

2. The use of figurative language

                    

            People who naturally employ metaphor and simile in their speech especially when it is “Unusual kind” are same to have imagination. This may or may not be accompanied by imagination in other senses. Metaphor and simile the two may be considered together have a great variety of functions of speech. For example,

Shelly’s “Dome of many-coloured glass...”

is only example which springs to mind. Figurative language works as the tool which leads to the imagination.

“The freedom of my writings has indeed provoked an implacable tribe but I was safe from the strings, I was soon accustomed to the buzzing of the hornets” – Gibbon

              

             Metaphor is a semi-surreptitious method by which a greater variety of elements can be wrought into the fabric of the experience.

3. The narrower sense

                   

          A narrower sense is that in which sympathetic reproduction of other people’s state of mind, particularly their emotional state, is what is meant. ‘You haven’t enough imagination’ the dramatist says to the critic who thinks that his persons behave unnaturally. This kind of imagination is plainly a necessity for communication.

4. Inventiveness in imagination

                  

           Inventiveness, the bringing together of elements which are not ordinary, connected, is another sense.

                 

           It has the power to modify a series of thoughts by and predominant thoughts and feeling. Taking into consideration Coleridge, he considers ‘poetics’ as essential amongst all of other valuable characteristics. Poet is poet because of,

1 The availability of experience

2 Width of the field of simulation

3 Completeness of unique response (it should be naturally different)

                         

         A poet unlike any ordinary person looks at the things with a different perspective. Poet has the superior power to order the experience where as in a common man, impulse interfere emotions combined into a stable poise for a poet. Suppressions are carried out beautifully and as a result the thought process is different.

                     

         The selection of the topic by the poet should be out of the box, sometimes extremely different from what a poet habitually do. Everything that a poet sees has different perspective to it.

5. The scientific imagination

                       

          We have that kind of relevant connection of things ordinarily thought of as disparate which is exemplified in scientific imagination. This is an ordering of experience in definite ways and for a definite end or purpose.

6. The sense of musical delight

                   

           The original formulation was Coleridge’s greatest contribution to critical theory.

“The sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar objects; a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order”

                  

         'The sense of musical delight... with the power of reducing multitude into unity of effect, and modifying a series of thoughts by someone predominant thought or feeling’– These are the gifts of imagination.

                   

       A poet is not nearly looking at the beauty, it’s all about organizing them into a heighten experience.  According to Coleridge,

“The sense of musical delight is a gift of the imagination”

Tragedy and Imagination

       

       There are two emotions in tragedy pity and tragedy.

Pity - The impulse to approach

Tragedy – The impulse to retreat

                  

         Combination of both pity and terror leads us to catharsis threw which we recognize tragedy. Suppression is important for awaking of sense. Although suppression is required for tragic experience, the mind does not shy away from anything, it does not protect itself with any illusion, it stands uncomforted, un-intimidated alone and self-reliant.

                 

        The essence of tragedy is that it forces us to live for a moment without personal emotions. When we succeed we find, as usual, that there is no difficulty; the difficulty came from the suppressions and sublimations. The balance of tragedy is not in the structure but in response. It is not an indication that ‘all’s right with the world’ or that ‘somewhere, somehow, there is justice,’ it is an indication that all is right here and now in the nervous system.

                 

       Aesthetic state of emotions is very important in imagination especially in poetry. Accidental circumstances and personal interest which may seen ordinary but develop into extra-ordinary.

Organizing of impulses is also equally important.

1 by exclusion and inclusion

2 by synthesis and elimination

        A very great deal of poetry and art is content with organized development of comparatively special and limited experience with a definite emotion or emotions. For example emotions are, Joy, pride, love, admiration and hope. 

There are three different modes,

1. Melancholy

2. Optimism

3. Longing

Structuring in terms of experience,

“Break, Break, Break”

And

“Ode to a Nightingale” 

           Both the poetry is different, not because of subject but the difference is the relation of several impulses. In the first poem the set of impulse run parallel where as in the second poem there is extraordinary. It is believed that ‘irony’ more often than not is a constant experience in poetry. It brings out much more facts of the personality than through any other defined emotion.

          One has to see all around in imagination. Some interest is required, but the more you are impersonal the more you are completely involved.

Reference: Literary Criticism A Reading by  B. Das and J. M. Mohanty