Alphabet for Dreamers, An

How to See the World with Eyes Closed

Sharon Sliwinski, Melinda Josie (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

240 Seiten

2025
MIT Press (Verlag)
978-0-262-04979-5 (ISBN)

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A captivating and trailblazing look at how dreams serve as one of our most powerful ways to understand and radically change our world. Borrowing from the traditional alphabet book genre for children, An Alphabet for Dreamers provides adult readers with a new grammar for dreams, or what neuroscientist Sidarta Riberio calls oracles of the night. In this book, Sharon Sliwinski restores dreaming to its proper place as an important worldmaking activity, one that offers a gateway to another way of seeing. Each of the short 26 chapters engages a dream from the historical record from both the recent and distant past to show how these experiences can help make sense of profound social conflicts and transform our shared reality. Thinking alongside the dreams of powerful exemplars from Harriet Tubman to contemporary Indigenous activist Abigail Echo-Hawk readers come to understand how dream life is a crucial resource for generating new worlds and new ways of being. The book brings together urgent concerns from the domains of critical theory, visual culture, and mental health to show how dreaming serves as a vital source of knowledge and a crucial mode of thinking. As with traditional alphabet books, illustrations provide an integral voice. Each chapter of the book is accompanied by an original watercolor painting by Melinda Josie that visually underscores the way dreams serve as a unique medium for processing our lived experience. Together, the images and text form a delicate dialogue, drawing attention to the details of the central scenes, extending the book s special mode of thinking in painted form. By working alongside dreamers from the past and present, An Alphabet for Dreamers begins a new and much-needed conversation about the social and political importance of dream life.

Sharon Sliwinski is Professor of Information & Media Studies at Western University in Canada. Her previous books include Human Rights in Camera, Dreaming in Dark Times, and Photography and the Optical Unconscious.

Prologue
Introduction
A Is for ATTENTION
B Is for BOA CONSTRICTOR
C Is for CANCER
D Is for DEFENSE
E Is for EVIL
F Is for FILING CABINET
G Is for GRIEF
H Is for HOMEWORK
I Is for INTERGENERATIONAL
J Is for JEALOUSY
K Is for KIDS
L Is for LIBERATION
M Is for MONSTER
N Is for NIGHTMARE
O Is for OTOSCOPE
P Is for PRINCESS DIANA
Q Is for QUACKERY
R Is for REFUGE
S Is for SUICIDE
T Is for TRANS
U Is for UTOPIA
V Is for VEGETABLES
W Is for WHITE WOLVES
X Is for XANAX
Y Is for YOU
Z Is for ZED

Erscheinungsdatum	20.10.2025
Zusatzinfo	43 COLOR ILLUS.
Sprache	englisch
Maße	127 x 178 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-262-04979-1 / 0262049791
ISBN-13	978-0-262-04979-5 / 9780262049795
Zustand	Neuware