ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Samuel Taylor Coleridge divides imagination into two parts: the primary and secondary imagination.

Detailed explanation-2: -The primary imagination is universal which is to say, we all possess it. Secondary imagination or poetic imagination, as Coleridge defines it, differs from the primary imagination only in degree and mode of operation. It is the characteristic trait of the artist.

Detailed explanation-3: -According to Coleridge, Imagination has two forms i.e. Primary and Secondary. Primary imagination is merely the power of receiving impressions of the external world through the senses. It is the power of perceiving the objects of sense, both in their parts and as a whole.

Detailed explanation-4: -Imagination and the suspension of disbelief In one of the most famous passages in Biographia Literaria, Coleridge offers a theory of creativity (pp. 95-96). He divides imagination into primary and secondary. Primary imagination is common to all humans: it enables us to perceive and make sense of the world.

Detailed explanation-5: -Imagination and fancy, however, differs in kind. Fancy is not a creative power at all. It only combines what is perceives into beautiful shapes, but like the imagination it does not fuse and unify. The difference between the two is the same as the difference between a mechanical mixture and a chemical compound.