SOURCE: Higonnet, Margaret R. “Bachelard and the Romantic Imagination.” Cahiers Roumains d'Etudes Litteraires 1 (1987): 92-109.

In the following essay, Higonnet notes the contradictions in Bachelard's ideas about imagination and investigates the influence of Romantic theories on his work.

The coherence of Gaston Bachelard's ideas about imagination, has long eluded students of his work. Because of his shifts in critical approach, a debate has arisen over what system, if any, governs his meditations on poetic imagery.

The problem requires a comparative approach, since Bachelard's work is rooted in the poetics and poetry of English and German Romanticism, a period for which he declared his affinity. The purpose of comparing Bachelard's thought to that of his Romantic predecessors is not, however, to demonstrate his intellectual dependence. Many students of Bachelard have noted in passing his interest in writers like Novalis.¹ Since none explores this interest in detail, it has not been...