Toward a Historiography of Dreams

Abstract

The historiography of dreams has yet to emerge as a distinct field, and key changes in dream research are worthy of consideration to reflect on tacit knowledge in academia. Gesturing toward such a historiography, the historical construction of the “dream” is examined from a discursive perspective via localization in the internal/external and subjective/objective, communicative and social imagined spaces of dreams, as well as the theoretical paradigms of essentialism and contextualism. Premodern to post-postmodern epistemes are considered as shaping forces in these discourses, involving power and authority in determining what counts as legitimate or significant knowledge. The discussion concludes with reflections on the current state of dream research from a post-postmodern perspective, suggesting the ontological multiplicity of the “dream.”