The imaginary as a critical concept originated in the twentieth century and has been theorized in diverse ways. It can be understood as a register of thought; the way we interpret the world; the universe of images, signs, texts, and objects of thought. In this volume, it is explored as it manifests itself in encounters between the verbal and the visual. A number of the essays brought together here explore the transposition of the imaginary in illustrations of texts and verbal renditions of images, as well as in comic books based on paintings or on verbal narratives. Others analyze ways in which books deal with film or television and investigate the imaginary in digital media. Special attention is paid to the imaginary of places and the relationship of the imaginary with memory. Written in English and French, these contributions by European and American scholars demonstrate the various concerns and approaches characteristic of contemporary scholarship in word and image studies.
Claus Clüver, an Indiana University professor emeritus of Comparative Literature, has also taught at New York University, the University of California at Berkeley, and in several European and Brazilian universities. His publications include a book in German on 20th-century theatre and over forty essays on the history, theory, and practice of intermedial and interarts studies, especially on Concrete and visual poetry, intersemiotic transposition and ekphrasis, and representation in the arts. He is co-editor of The Pictured Word (1998), Signs of Change: Transformations of Christian Traditions and their Representation in the Arts, 1000â2000 (2004), Orientations: Space/Time/Image/Word (2005, all Rodopi), and Intermidialidade (UFMG, Brazil, 2006).
Matthijs Engelberts is based at the University of Amsterdam, where his current research is centered primarily on aspects of mediality in modern literature and (other) narrative art media. His publications include books, edited volumes, and articles in French and English on (genre and media- related questions in) surrealist theatre, the contemporary drama text, theatresports, Beckett, Tardieu, Duras, Molière, Philippe Claudel, and other authors. He is a member of the core editorial board of the bilingual journal Samuel Beckett Today/aujourdâhui.