Question

In Chapter 14, Coleridge distinguishes between:

• A. Imagination and fancy
• B. Emotion and intellect
• C. Style and substance
• D. Truth and beauty

Answer 1

Answer:

A. Imagination and fancy

In Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge distinguishes between imagination and fancy in Chapter 14. Coleridge believed that imagination is the creative force behind writing, while fancy is a mechanical process that only recombines existing ideas. 

• Imagination

  Coleridge believed that imagination is the soul of poetic genius, and that it's the primary creative force in writing. He divided imagination into two parts: primary and secondary.

  • Primary imagination: This is the living power of human perception, and it's the ability to understand the unity of objects. It's also the ability to learn from nature.

  • Secondary imagination: This is the conscious power that poets use to select and rearrange raw materials to create something beautiful.

• Fancy

  Coleridge believed that fancy is a passive faculty that accumulates facts but can't create anything new. He described it as a mechanical process that imitates fixed concepts.

Coleridge's distinction between imagination and fancy was a unique contribution to literary theory.