This course is offered in conjunction with the conference "Inventions of the Imagination: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Imaginary since Romanticism," which take place at the UW on 18-20 May 2007. Like the conference, the course aims to explore how the human imagination has been theorized from different perspectives--literary, philosophical, psychological, musical, etc.--from the end of the eighteenth century to the present. The final choice of readings will depend on the interests of those enrolled in the course, but will include texts concerned with non-literary arts and with contemporary scientific practices.