From the ancient mythical narratives up to the 21st century
fiction, literature – as a product of human imagination – has
always been linked to dreams and dreaming. The articles
included in AIC 34 explore the complex symbolic dimensions of DREAMS in literature, their nature and functions. By visiting
writings from different eras and regions, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the canonical works of Shakespeare and Calderón, from the Tang dynasty poetry to European Romanticism, from Dostoevsky to George Orwell and Tennessee Williams, from Marguerite Yourcenar and Dino Buzzati to Michel Butor, Ana Blandiana and Matei Vişniec, from Yan Lianke to Joséphine Bacon – poétesse de la Toundra, the contributors to the
34th issue addressed dreams, waking dreams, the
(day)dreaming process and dreamscapes, primarily from psychological and
psychoanalytical perspectives.

Bridge to the other side/afterworld, metaphor/allegory for psychological states, messenger of the future, political ideal turned into nightmare, refuge from trauma, loss and social
displacement, spiritual practice and cultural identity marker, solace for the longing heart, source of personal development and spiritual growth, the literary dream unfurled its (re)generative, premonitory, restorative and therapeutical powers. Mediator between
conscious and unconscious, reason and emotion, violence and empathy, utopia and dystopia, dream revealed itself as an essential topos in literature, and, furthermore,
a means of experimentation, leading to various forms of literary mode and
genre hybridization.