The idea is simple: the fact that dreams can completely alter our state of mind and perception of things. In the waking world, we are assigned meanings and visual objects to words. But in the dream world, do these things lose their meaning? Not necessarily, but they have the potential to. Take for example, the hammer labeled “le desert” (translated as a desert). In the physical world, there are two separate meanings to these words. But in our altered state of mind and reality, which is the dream, these objects can have the possibility of meaning the same thing. Essentially, what our mind perceives to be something, can likewise be something else in a different state. Have you ever heard the idea that one cannot read in their dreams? Try for yourself and see if it’s possible. If it’s not, this further illustrates my point. (I, on the other hand, have been able to… I think)
i like that the painting brings up the question not of being able to read dreams, but of being able to read in dreams. isn't also paradoxical to "try" to read in a dream?
Welcome to The Making. This is the webslog (website + blog) for Discussion Section 29011, which meets MWF 1:00-1:50 in HH 224. My name is Erin Trapp and I am your discussion instructor. Please refer to the blog for information and assignments, and always feel free to post comments. You will occasionally be asked to post responses here. My office hours are in HIB 192, Wednesday 12-1 and Friday 10-11, and by appointment.
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Gershwin, Porgy and Bess
Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
HCC Reader 85-133 (German docs II)
HCC Reader 35-84 (German documents)
Albierti, On Painting, preface, chapters 2 & 3
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Reader, chapter 11 "Genre"
Reader, chapter 14 "Analyzing Drama"
Reader, chapter 13 "Textual Analysis"
Reader, chapter 12 "The Active Reading Process"
Meanings
aesthetic (source: Online Etymology Dictionary) 1798, from Ger. ästhetisch or Fr. esthétique, both from Gk. aisthetikos "sensitive," from aisthanesthai "to perceive, to feel," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from base *au- "to perceive." Popularized in Eng. by translation of Immanuel Kant, and used originally in the classically correct sense "the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception." Kant had tried to correct the term after Baumgarten had taken it in Ger. to mean "criticism of taste" (1750s), but Baumgarten's sense attained popularity in Eng. c.1830s (despite scholarly resistance) and removed the word from any philosophical base. Walter Pater used it (1868) to describe the late 19c. movement that advocated "art for art's sake," which further blurred the sense. Aesthete first recorded 1881.
4 comments:
The idea is simple: the fact that dreams can completely alter our state of mind and perception of things. In the waking world, we are assigned meanings and visual objects to words. But in the dream world, do these things lose their meaning? Not necessarily, but they have the potential to. Take for example, the hammer labeled “le desert” (translated as a desert). In the physical world, there are two separate meanings to these words. But in our altered state of mind and reality, which is the dream, these objects can have the possibility of meaning the same thing. Essentially, what our mind perceives to be something, can likewise be something else in a different state. Have you ever heard the idea that one cannot read in their dreams? Try for yourself and see if it’s possible. If it’s not, this further illustrates my point. (I, on the other hand, have been able to… I think)
i like that the painting brings up the question not of being able to read dreams, but of being able to read in dreams. isn't also paradoxical to "try" to read in a dream?
p.s.: what does dream interpretation contribute to a theory of textual interpretation?
Language, like dreams, carry in themselves various meanings.
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