The Imagination of Freedom Critical texts and times in contemporary liberalism by Andrew Foley

ISBN: 9781868144921

Wits University Press, May 2009

328 pages, Paperback

A detailed, contextualised discussion of the work of Alan Paton, Chinua Achebe, Seamus Heaney, Fay Weldon, Athol Fugard, Ian McEwan and more to reassess the significance of their work from contemporary perspectives, clarify their political vision as liberal writers and develop a case for liberalism as a coherent political philosophy. 

The Imagination of Freedom explores the works of a number of writers who have responded, through a liberal viewpoint, to the critical moments in contemporary political history when the freedom of the individual has come under severe threat. These writers have used the power of the creative imagination to provide a critique of the illiberal practices of their times and to reassert an alternative version of a free and open society, founded upon the ideas of individual liberty and social justice. 

Andrew Foley refers both to the writers’ critically independent analyses of their societies and their ability to imagine and describe a more just and equitable social order. Through a detailed, contextualised discussion of these works, Foley aims to reassess the significance of the work of these writers from a contemporary perspective, to clarify their political vision as liberal writers, and more generally to develop a case for liberalism as a coherent and compelling political philosophy.