Dreamwork

Why All Work Is Imaginary

Steven Connor

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781789147568
• eBook ISBN: 9781789148053
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Upending our perception of employment, a surprising investigation into the mystical nature of our daily toil. Dreamwork is a book about the ideas, dreams, dreads, and ideals we have about work. Its central argument is this: Although we depend on the idea of work for our identity as humans, we feel we must disguise from ourselves the fact that we do not know what work is. There is no example of work that nobody might, under some circumstances, do for fun. All work is imaginary—which is not to say that it is simply illusory, but rather that, to count as work, it must be imagined to be work. In other words, a large part of what we mean by working is this work of imagining. Work is therefore essentially mystical—just the opposite of what it is taken to be by all of us spending our days at desks, behind cash registers, and in factories. Delving into this complex mythos, Dreamwork looks in turn at worries about whether or not work is hard; the importance of places of work; the meanings of hobbies, holidays, and sabbaths; and the history of dreams of redeeming work.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Dreamworks
• 2 Hard Work
• 3 At Work
• 4 Off Work
• 5 Working Out
• References
• Further Reading
• Index