ABSTRACT
The paper explores the relations between imagination and horror, from a Bachelardian perspective. The analysis draws on dreams from the times of the Nazi regime, and especially in the dream material collected by Jean Cayrol during his experience as a prisoner in the concentration camp of Mauthausen. Fundamental tenets of Bachelard’s conception about the creative imagination and its anthropological-existential meaning are thus tested.
Keywords:
Bachelard; Jean Cayrol; symbolic imagination; dreams; regime of terror; concentration camp experience.