At the Borders of Sleep: On Liminal Literature - download pdf or read online

At the Borders of Sleep is a distinct exploration of the connections among literature and the liminal states among waking and sleeping—from falling asleep and waking up, to drowsiness and insomnia, to states within which napping and waking combine. Delving into philosophy in addition to literature, Peter Schwenger investigates the edge among waking and napping as a massive and efficient kingdom among the compelled march of rational notion and the oblivion of unconsciousness.

While studying literary representations of a number of the states among waking and slumbering, At the Borders of Sleep additionally analyzes how writers and readers alike draw on and input into those states. to take action Schwenger reads quite a lot of authors for whom the borders of sleep are the most important, together with Marcel Proust, Stephen King, Paul Valéry, Fernando Pessoa, Franz Kafka, Giorgio de Chirico, Virginia Woolf, Philippe Sollers, and Robert Irwin. contemplating drowsiness, insomnia, and waking up, he seems at such matters because the hypnagogic nation, the adventure of analyzing and why it really is diverse from complete recognition, the relationships among insomnia and writing and why insomnia is usually a resource of artistic perception, and the endurance of liminal components in waking idea. a last bankruptcy specializes in literature that blurs dream and waking lifestyles, giving certain realization to experimental writing.

Ultimately arguing that, occurring at the edges of cognizance, either the studying and writing of literature are liminal stories, At the Borders of Sleep indicates new how you can take into consideration the character of literature and consciousness.