Imagination in the Contemporary World and the Legacy of Romantic Literary Thought

power of his understanding of the relationship between the creative powers that Wordsworth felt flowing through him – imagination, and his will to turn this creative force into a creation by choice – by the exertion of his own will, has motivational value for the writer and the poet that transcends any technical, scientific definitions of “imagery” and “imagination” that have been produced from exploring traumatized and bisected monkey (or human) brains.

Imagination was recognized in various, past cultures as possessing its own particular dimensions, which now will be refined through Wordsworth, who redefines imagination as a choice which may acted upon by the will.

Today’s students, largely exposed to scientific method and scientific jargon, have not   experienced the making of a major definition in the matter of creativity: it is almost a fearful thing to call oneself “creative.”  To admit having a big imagination is to invite speculation as to one’s ultimate mental stability: there are already correlations that exist between creativity and manic depression, creativity and insanity. Unfortunately, the fact that a person in danger of insanity, or who is mentally unstable, might resort to a creative stratagem in order to survive or to improve one’s grasp, by the will, of reality, through the act of creation, does not seem to be understood in that light, and I suggest that this is an unfortunate oversight.

As for the rest of us, the use of imagination as a tool to explore realistic outcomes after making a certain choice provides a basis for understanding the utilitarian advantages of such a function.  The viability of imagination as a source of attaining logical order in our lives, having explored, via the imagination,

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