This course of eight lectures will focus on moments in the history of the imagination. We will use literature, philosophy, music, the visual arts and cinema to think about imagination both as a noun (an idea or a faculty) and verb (how still and moving images are made, responded to and lived with). The word image nestles within the word imagination; we’ll trace how the eye becomes a vital as well as a tyrannical presence within this history of the imagination, from the classical to the contemporary periods. 

Participants will not be required to have specialized knowledge of the media, disciplines and practices discussed in the course. The pleasures of reading, viewing and listening will be at the heart of this jargon-free, open-ended yet rigorous series.