English Literature / Unit 12 ENL 1138 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Coleridge on Willing Suspension of Disbelief
Captions available
The idea
In chapter fourteen of the Biographia, Coleridge explains the plan of Lyrical Ballads: he would make supernatural subjects seem real, procuring "that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith," while Wordsworth made ordinary things seem new.
In practice
Supernatural made real; ordinary made new.
Where people slip
The reader agrees to suspend disbelief.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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