Zusammen träumen
Manfred Engel
KulturPoetik October 17, 2023 DOI: 10.13109/kult.2023.23.2.226 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that literary and artistic works present a substantial tradition of shared and collective dreams—including the 'double love-dream' and dreams entered by others via technology or telepathy—which stands in contrast to the conception of the dream as a private, subjective experience attributed to Heraclitus and Freud. |
Abstract
Both Heraclitus and Freud defined the dream as an a-social, ultimatively subjective experience. In literature and the arts, however, we find an impressive amount of dreams which are shared by two individuals independently of one another, and of collective dreams in which two or more individuals share the same dreamspace. After a short glance at supernatural dreams, the essay discusses the standard type of the double love-dream (Kleist, Hathaway) and two examples for its functional variations (Tolstoy, Ki-duk). The last section is devoted to shared dreams in which a second person (or group of persons) enters a sleeper’s dreamspace with the help of technical gadgets or telepathy, and actively partakes in his or her dream (Ruben).