Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams", published in 1900, has been one of the most influential texts of the 20th century, fundamentally changing the ways in which people think about their waking lives as well as their dreams. The book, more than any other in Freud's oeuvre, has shaped work in linguistics and semiotics, literary studies, film theory, psychology, philosophical hermeneutics and the history of ideas. This influence is reflected in the editor's introduction and the six essays specially commissioned for this volume. The essays examine, for example, the reaction of Freud's text to theories if interpretation, autobiography and literary production. They aim, as a whole, to give a sense both of the context of Freud's text and of its influence throughout the 20th century.