The Fabulous Imagination on Montagine Essays

In this book, Lawrence D. Kritzman traces Montaigne´s development of the Western concept of the self. For Montaigne, imagination lies at the core of an internal universe that influences both the body and the mind. Imagination is essential to human experience. Although Montaigne recognized that the imagination can confuse the individual, "the fabulous imagination" can be curative, enabling the mind´s "I" to sustain itself in the face of hardship. Kritzman begins with Montaigne´s study of the fragility of gender and its relationship to the peripatetic movement of a fabulous imagination. He then follows with the essayist´s examination of the act of mourning and the power of the imagination to overcome the fear of death. Kritzman concludes with Montaigne´s views on philosophy, experience, and the connection between self-portraiture, ethics, and oblivion. His reading demonstrates that the mind´s I, as Montaigne envisioned it, sees by imagining that which is not visible, thus offering an alternative to the logical positivism of our age.