SOURCE: Forsyth, Neil. “Gaston Bachelard's Theory of the Poetic Imagination: Psychoanalysis to Phenomenology.” In The Quest for Imagination: Essays in Twentieth-Century Aesthetic Criticism, edited by O. B. Hardison, Jr., pp. 225-53. Cleveland, Ohio: The Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1971.

In the following essay, Forsyth provides an overview of Bachelard's critical approach to the concept of imagination, asserting that his development progressed “from the objectivity of psychoanalysis to the subjectivity of phenomenology.”

When Gaston Bachelard died in 1962, he was probably best known to students of the philosophy of science for his work in the French post-Cartesian tradition. But at present he is also becoming well known for his studies of the literary imagination and the theory of criticism. He continued to teach the philosophy of science at the Sorbonne until his retirement in 1955, always maintaining his early interest in the rational intellect. But gradually he became interested in...