The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination (1940)

The Imaginary was originally published in France in 1940 as L'Imaginaire. Designed specifically as an essay in phenomenology, it marks the first attempt to introduce Husserl's work into French culture and from there to the English-speaking world. Published three years before Being and Nothingness, it contains Sartre's first extended examination of such concepts as nothingness and freedom. It is in The Imaginary that Sartre first presents the theories of human imagination and consciousness that were to drive his existentialism and his entire theories of human freedom. This new translation by Jonathan Webber rectifies flaws in the terminology of the 1948 translation and recaptures the essence of Sartre's phenomenology. Webber's perceptive new introduction helps to decipher this challenging, seminal work, placing it in the context of the author's work and the history of philosophy.