Imaginario popular

Imaginario popular
 

Could be "popular imagination" a proper translation for "imaginario popular"?

We mean by "imaginario popular" the collection of ideas and myths that no matter they're abstract and imaginary, often act as a way to structure society in spite they're not social values. They are sort of informal institutions, totally created by collective imagination. An instance of it in the anglo-saxon world could be the romantic image attached to criminals like Bonnie and Clyde.

I would think 'folklore', or 'oral traditions', is an equivalent in English.

Thank you, Rusty. Time given, some elements of "imaginario popular" may become folklore. Maybe I failed to explain the idea. Here is an example written in 2003:

"En los últimos diez años la taquilla estadounidense se ha visto invadida por films que o bien planteaban que el mundo tal y como lo conocemos es una ilusión, o bien construían durante toda la película una ilusión para dar por tierra con ella hacia el final. Los sospechosos de siempre, El club de la pelea, Al filo de la muerte, Los otros, Sexto sentido, Truman Show, Matrix... Sin llegar a ser abrumadora, tan siquiera por tratarse de las películas de mayor éxito y repercusión en el imaginario popular de fin de siglo, la coincidencia es significativa. Una cierta tendencia viene observándose desde hace algún tiempo en el cine de entretenimiento. Y es la de un creciente cuestionamiento de la realidad, tanto fílmica como objetiva..."

Popular imagery = popular imagination

I don't like either of these, the first is definitely not correct. "popular myth" is my best shot.

I know it is an odd way, but it exist in English as well as in Spanish. Maybe an old way to say "popular myth/belief"?

Popular culture?

Not quite. I guess.

'Pop culture' is usually considered the 'culture' that comes as a result of 'mass media'. This includes what the film industry is marketing.

Well but in the context of the phrase which ones is?
It's about a person or object.

In this case I would say imaginary friend.

Common myth? :D

Mmm... what about "popular cultural idiosyncrasy" (idiosincrasia cultural popular)?
O "idiosincrasia cultural del pueblo"... o "la idiosincrasia del pueblo"...?

Or probably "la imaginería popular" is just fine... "the popular imagery"
im·age·ry
1. the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively: the dim imagery of a dream.
2. pictorial images.
3. the use of rhetorical images.
4. figurative description or illustration; rhetorical images collectively.
5. Psychol. mental images collectively, esp. those produced by the action of imagination.

There is a common term among English-speaking journalists: to capture the public's imagination.
The movie Avatar has raised/captured the pulblic's imagination.

Wow! Thank you all!

I think that "popular imagery" may come closer to the concept, as "imaginario popular" is like a cabinet where you find symbols, senses and significance that are widely shared among communities. When "la gente quiere ver en esto tal o cual cosa" in a regular and persistent way it becomes part of the "imaginario popular" ("tal o cual cosa", not "esto", I think that's why many suggested other terms that are valid with a different point of view).

Correct. When it rains people here say that is raining "cats and dogs" is an image that people imagine to get a picture of reality. For us it does not have the same effect because we imagine/see literally dogs and cats and that exact image does not work for us foreigners. :)

I am explaining what imagery means to me, and not popular imagery... (just in case)