What is the significance of Constable's paintings and 'Constable country' for the contemporary postmodern era? Peter Bishop brings a new, post-Jungian or archetypal perspective to bear on Constable's paintings and 'Constable country', addressing also the broader issues of the cultural psychology of art and the role of imagined landscapes in the formation of modern psychological and cultural ideas.

It forms a companion volume to the author's earlier work, The Myth of Shangri-La, which looked at Western fantasies of the 'Other' as expressed in the creation of images of an exotic place. The present volume charts the corresponding fantasies of the 'Self': 'Constable country' provides a lens to examine the fostering of a sense of identity - individual, cultural and national. It will be of value to all those with an interest in art history, cultural history, psychology and cultural geography.