Taxonomy of the Concept of the Imaginary through the prism of Interculturality

Abstract

In anthropological, psychological, cultural studies, etc., the imaginary is considered to be a part of the human psyche that refers to the images, symbols and mental representations existing in the human brain due to knowledge of the world. It is about images, thoughts, dreams, fantasies and other forms of abstract mental representation. It is for this reason that the imaginary is widely used in literary creation, especially in the poetic works of authors around the world. The present study focuses on the analysis and synthesis of some definitions of the concept of imaginary, from the perspective of linguists, literary critics, translators, but also from sources such as dictionaries, in order to outline as clearly as possible, the essence of the given concept. We resort to a series of classifications of image types, starting from the interdisciplinary dimension of the given concept. For example, from the point of view of perception, we can talk about visual images, auditory images, tactile images, olfactory images, etc. This and other image classification possibilities proposed by various specialists will be presented in the next study. We set out to identify in this investigation the tangents that emerge between interculturality and perception, understanding and use of the concept of the imaginary, in order to increase the popularity of this idea and to make us aware of the fact that the imaginary is a component of the literature we read but also more importantly, it is a special side of our creative thinking.