The English Novel-or-Finnegan's Wake in the Global Village: Part 1

Oral Multi-Culturalism in the Global Village -or- Literacy of Dream Vision 

We all learn a language, and anyone who is reading this has learnt the English language. Many who are bi-lingual (or more) are likely translating what they are reading in English into their own mother tongue. Understanding the origin of language is seen by some as "the hardest problem in science". 

The dream interpretation "International Mother Language Day" discusses "going native" in different oral dream cultures. Walter Benjamin believed in the kinship of all languages, which is discussed in the interpretation "Entering the Gutenberg Galaxy". 

Walter Ong "Orality and Literacy", distinguished between primary and secondary orality, "primary orality", is verbal expression without the influence of the written or printed word (without reading), "secondary orality" includes what you the reader are doing right now. The psychdynamics of "orality" , the "oral tradition", and the human condition in the global village can be envisioned using our dreams. 

The media effects of oral and visual history and tradition on "dream vision" is being written, and is a multi-cultural work in progress during "1001 Nights in the Global Village". The mythography  of dream vision of oral (book culture) and "visual culture" of the American, French, Spanish, Swiss, German, Italian, Russian, Arabian, Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, and so on, is part and parcel of the literary semiotic manifold of the "Travels in the Hyperreality" of dreams washing over the planet and in the global village as we speak. 

Living in our post-modern "Small World" the oral and visual cultural flow of this hypertextual manifold of dream vision takes place. The enterprise of the IIDR is to make this mythological and poetic process transparent for you the reader. Whereas Dante in "Divine Comedy" had Virgil and Beatrice as his dream vision guides, I have employed a multitude of dreamers of the past who speak a variety of different languages to show the way into the future. 

Anatomy of Dream Vision in the Global Village -or- Our Forgotten Language 

Giambattista Vico's "New Science" heralded a poetic theory of civilization, with each epochal poetic age having dominant master tropes (or literary archetypes) which organize it. If Vico posited that civilizations go through recurring (archetypal) tropological cycles, then James Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake" signals the beginning of a unifying "new age" of dream vision. In this post-modern age, the poetic ontological dream vision process of civilization itself becomes self conscious. 

Joyce recreates the cyclical language world of sleep and dreams, rejoicing in the endless multilingual idioms, puns, and literary allusions found circulating in dream vision. It's like listening and tuning into the "confusion of the tongues" in the global village. We have the literary tools to restore the universal language of the dream to everyone. It is what Erich Fromm called "The Forgotten Language" and what I have presented to you the reader as "dream vision". The IIDR has provided a literary "thematic" guide and a Hemingway ("A Moveable Feast" like literary "menu" for dream vision in the two interpretations below; 

The cultural literacy of dream vision and the underlying oral and visual cultural idiom process circulating in our dreams is within our grasp. Via educational essentialism the "perennial education" of dream vision in the global village can lead to a deeper understanding of "The Anatomy of the Dream" (read article). 

In the next section, English literature as it relates to dream vision is reviewed. Other future interpretations of "Finnigan's Wake in the Global Village" will feature American, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and German literature of dream vision. When combined, with Biblical and classical history (ancient Greece and Roman Empire) they will represent the bulk of the Western "historical novel" of dream vision. 

The English Novel -or- The British Empire and Cultural Imperialism 

In "Albion: The Origin of the English Imagination", Peter Ackroyd determines that English literature begins with the dream vision of Caedmon. Many other English writers and poets would follow in his literary footsteps, including Chaucer and Shakespeare. The rise of the English novel roughly coincides with the English language being spread across the globe via the "British Empire". In terms of a historical time scale, English cultural imperialismbegan in the late 16th century and lasted into the 20th century. 

Seen from the British monarchy perspective, British cultural dominance and imperialism begins roughly with Elisabeth I and ends at the beginning of the reign of Elisabeth II. At its peak, the cultural idiom of this English imperialism is known to us as; "the sun never sets on the British Empire". 

English dream vision literature has been a constant in the English literary tradition and its British Empire "Commonwealth of Nations" offshoots like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India. Many English authors have been employed in a variety of dream interpretations posted at the IIDR website in search of understanding of the English cultural idiom of dream vision. Here are some of them; 

The work of Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland", William Morris "News from Nowhere", Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Kubla Khan", George Eliot "Middlemarch" and William Blake's "Jerusalem" will find expression in future dream interpretations. 

On a few final notes, from a popular culture industry perspective, recent successful biographical films such as "The Queen", "The King's Speech" and "The Iron Lady" have fascinated audiences about British culture and history. Is it surprising that we can find English culture circulating in modern dreams, where we find a variety of iconic names like; James Bond, The Beatles, and Princess Diana. 

Further Reading: 

 

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.