Dreams frighten and attract us because of their ›otherness‹, their
manifold
deviations from the world we know when we are awake. One
of the most consistently used techniques of coming to terms with this
otherness has been the attempt to ›make sense‹ of dreams, to consider
and portray them as messages which can and have to be deciphered.
On the other hand (and much more rarely), dreams have been considered
as a welcome source of entertainment, or as a key instrument
to expand the limitations of a rational and conventional world view.
This book analyses aspects of this dialectic in factual dream reports
and in fictional representations of the dream in literature, film, music,
and painting. Examples are taken from a great variety of cultures and
historical periods. Their authors and artists include: Adorno, Agualusa,
Andreas-Salomé, Apollinaire, Artmann, Beckmann, Benjamin,
Breton, Carroll, Carter, Diderot, Droste-Hülshoff, Flaubert, Goethe,
Gondry, Grandville, Ji Yun, Johannot, Kafka, Keller, Klinger, Kubin,
Li Gongzuo, Liu E, Ma Jian, Meyrink, Michaux, Minnelli, Montaigne,
Mora, Ofenbauer, Okri, Oppenheim, Plath, Proust, Pushkin, Rousseau,
Schopenhauer, Scott, Seghers, Sorel, Soseki, Wagner, Walser,
Wang Jian, Weiner, Wu Jianren, Yuan Mei, Zschokke, and many others.