Book Review of “Dreaming in Dark Times” by Sharon Sliwinski

Abstract

Sharon Sliwinski’s book, Dreaming in Dark Times, reads dreams drawn from six bleak historical moments in the 20^th century as texts in political thought. The book convincingly argues that rather than being a purely psychological phenomenon, dreams often dramatize harsh political realities, and might also become a potent political resource for resisting these realities. The book works through a productive tension between the dream that “shield[s] us against the world’s impingements,” and the dream that invites us into the world. However, Sliwinski’s ultimate commitment to a representation of the dream as a last preserve of individuality downplays the great subversive, even conspiratorial political horizon that the book promised by tying our dreams to the collective work of world-building.