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Reflections on Reverie
Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Reverie
David W. Perkins
Gaston Bachelard’s kaleidoscopic, interdisciplinary thought first came to my attention during postdoctoral research in comparative literature at Emory University. His Poetics of Space, which he calls a “phenomenology of dwelling,” stimulated profound reflection during a move from a much-beloved dwelling space in a remote rural setting in Georgia to a very different space in a tree-shrouded old Cape Cod in rural/urban Hanover County. Bachelard’s powers of meditative reflection and his profound reverence for the physical world deepened self-awareness about how I experience a dwelling and the significance my dwelling space has for me.
I was serving as interim rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Carrollton for one year and found a spacious garage apartment nestled in a grove of trees near the Alabama border. There, the reading of Bachelard began. His mode of reflecting on the “phenomenon of dwelling” sparked my reflection on the impact of that space on my psyche. Bachelard also led me to a deeper understanding of the relationship of that dwelling space to the outer world and to my inner world.
The Cape Cod in Hanover County would become a beloved new space because of reflection sparked by Bachelard’s ruminations on basements, closets, and attics. The Cape Cod is a two-storey wrapped in hickories, maples, and oaks with a full basement, second-storey bedrooms with dormers, and a large double garage/shop. Those spaces in my nest came to signify spaces in my psyche. And, the boundaries between that inner dwelling and the outer world dissolved under the influence of Bachelard’s meditations.
Bachelard, who died in 1962, held degrees in physics, mathematics, and philosophy. He taught at Dijon (1930-40) and the University of Paris (1940-54). His interests ranged from science to philosophy to Jungian psychology to poetry. In every area his wariness with regard to accepted, often reductive theory resulted in an inclusive, eclectic interdisciplinary weaving that sparked eloquent poetic reflection.
His Poetics of Reverie has been called a poetic reflection on poetry. In that work, he sets forth a theory of anima and of its relation to reverie that influenced James Hillman in his seminal post-Jungian essay on anima. In that later work, Hillman says: “Bachelard gives anima the consciousness of images, reverie, and depths (and much more) and assigns to animus “projects and worries,” or what we usually call (ego-) ëconsciousness.”
Bachelard does a phenomenological reflection on reverie. In phenomenology the focus is on the experience of consciousness itself. Prior to any effort to examine the emotional and physiological responses to a phenomenon, this approach asks how we experience the phenomenon subjectively within our conscious awareness. The other concerns are “bracketed,” or placed outside the scope of inquiry, what phenomenology calls an eidetic reduction of the field of vision.
Even in translation, Bachelard’s prose borders on the poetic. He describes his project in the opening pages:
Consciousness is in itself an act, the human act. It is a lively, full act. Even if the action which follows, which ought to have followed or should have followed, remains in suspense, the consciousness-as-act is still completely positive or kinetic. In the present essay we shall study this act only in the realm of language and more precisely yet in poetic language when the imagining consciousness creates and lives the poetic image. Adding to language, creating from language, stabilizing and loving language, are all activities where the consciousness of speaking is increased. (p. 5)
Bachelard draws on and refines Jung’s understanding of anima by positing anima as the dimension of consciousness that gives rise to the language of reverie. As such, anima cannot be limited to the shadow feminine within the male psyche; rather anima becomes the mediator of a unique form of consciousness experienced both by men and women. (Hillman’s most trenchant observations on this point can be found in Anima on p. 55.)
Bachelard states this thesis a bit later in the opening chapter:
So different from the dream (réve) which is so often marked by the hard accents of the masculine, reverie appeared to us in effect--this time beyond the words--to be of feminine essence. Reverie conducted in the tranquility of the day and in the space of repose--truly natural reverie--is the very force (puissance) of the being at rest. For any human being, man or woman, it is one of the feminine states of the soul . . . . We simply wish to show that reverie in its simplest and purest state belongs to the anima. (pp. 18-19)
Reading this work proved refreshing partly because of Bachelard’s image-driven poetic style. He says that this book grew out of his own anima-consciousness (see pp. 210-212), and the language is rich indeed. A few samples will make the point.
“. . . the great universe of the blank page.” (p. 6) “ . . . the pen point was an extension of the mind.” (p. 6) “A word is a bud attempting to become a twig.” (p. 17) “Sleep opens within us an inn for phantoms.” (p. 63) “What other psychological freedom do we have than the freedom to dream? Psychologically speaking, it is in reverie that we are free beings.” (p. 101) “So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.”(p. 104) “In reverie we re-enter into contact with possibilities which destiny has not been able to make use of.” (p. 112) “The pure memory has no date. It has a season.” (p. 116) “In days of happiness, the world is edible.” (p. 141) “Anything coming from anytime? Some too scanty milk in the bottles of long ago?” (p. 149) “I dream the world. Therefore the world exists as I dream it.” (p. 158) “Poetry nourishes within us reveries which we have not been able to express.” (p. 159) “One has never seen the world well if he has not dreamed what he was seeing.” (p. 173)
Aside from the pure joy evoked by encountering such exquisite language, Bachelard clarified for me the experience of the language of reverie in my own reading and writing. I find myself more aware of my experience of language and more reflective about images I encounter and their impact on my consciousness. Also, my experience of the physical world and of my own memories has taken on more clarity and intentionality. Perhaps one measure of the positive impact of this book has been a sudden surge in writing activity on my part.
It might be very enjoyable to engage in a group reading activity around this and other works of Bachelard’s, exploring especially the Jungian dimensions of his thought and the linkages to other Jungians and to the experience of the literary.
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D. is vicar of All Souls Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.
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