The Dynamics Of The Metaphoric Field

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The Dynamics of the Metaphoric Field

Author: Nicolae Babuts
language: en
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Release Date: 1992
"The Dynamics of the Metaphoric Field begins with the premise that the way we can make some progress toward agreement in literary theory is to examine how we know what we know. To this effect Nicolae Babuts undertakes to understand the workings of memory and to define the fundamental principles that guide it in its drive to meaning. The study establishes that we process reality and texts in quanta of energy, in terms of dynamic patterns that are the units of meaning. On the perceptual level, these patterns represent visual, auditory, or other sensory organizations, a kind of perceptual syntax of the world; on the textual level, they represent building blocks that are used in the writer's creation and the reader's re-creation of texts. In this view meaning is a consequence of the convergence of linguistic patterns and the syntax of perceptual events. The fact that evidence for the existence of dynamic patterns comes from various disciplines underscores the interrelatedness of cognitive sciences and literature and encourages us to believe that we are on the right track." "The study of memory and of textual dynamic patterns establishes certain fundamental concepts that are now defined not just in their theoretical modality but also in the act of performing their primary function. The disagreement about the role of reality in the creation and recreation of texts is traced to a blurring of the distinction between its material and symbolic identities and to an antiquated view of the "referent."" "In the cognitive light the referential reality splits into two components: its material identity or things in themselves, which we cannot know, and its symbolic or coded identity, with which we deal through our senses and memory. The crucial difference between approaches with formalist tendencies and the cognitive view is that in the latter the textual language and patterns have a strategic correspondence to the symbolic face of the real. Other consequences follow." "In reading, memory re-creates the metaphoric field--the dynamic patterns and the original tension--of a text in a reserved space. The reader's entry into the field recalls the paradox of the circle of understanding, but the dilemma is now stripped of its speculative aura and defined in terms of memory's ability to contact and activate appropriate potentials. Under these circumstances, the beginning of the text regains its power to communicate foreknowledge. The entry into the field becomes a re-creation but also a spiritual anticipation, a leap unto a higher level of suspense. Mnemonic--that is to say, human--values retake their place in the equation of meaning. Above all, the study indicates that the space where meaning is produced and recognized as such is the space of human consciousness."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Metaphor and Fields

Metaphor and Fields is an explanation and demonstration of the value of metaphoric processes and fields in psychoanalysis. In this book, Montana Katz articulates a future direction for psychoanalysis which is progressively explored, taking into account features essential to psychoanalysts of all persuasions, clinically and theoretically. In this way, psychoanalysis is brought into the postmodern future by fashioning an umbrella for the discipline. With this umbrella, the barriers to mutual understanding may be dismantled and a path permanently forged to the possibility of meaningful international, intercultural, interdisciplinary and poly-perspectival psychoanalytic exchange. Metaphor and Fields organically merges work on metaphoric processes with work on fields. The use of a framework with metaphoric processes and fields combined exhibits the uniqueness of psychoanalysis and shows how it explores and explains human experience. The relational fields of the North American school of relational theory, intersubjective matrices, self object matrices, and the ground breaking work of Madeleine and Willy Baranger are all examples of field concepts that have been successfully employed in theoretical frameworks and clinical technique. They show how other schools of thought can be understood as using an implicit field concept. The chapters in this book approach the subject from diverse vantage points. Taken together, they form an intricate web of psychoanalytic thought that moves the scope of psychoanalysis beyond dispute towards the open, inclusive discussion of core concepts and technique. Metaphor and Fields will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, mental health clinicians, psychologists, social workers, and a wide academic audience drawn from the fields of philosophy, linguistics, comparative literature, anthropology and sociology.
Memory, Metaphors, and Meaning

Literature explores the human condition, the mystery of the world, life and death, as well as our relations with others, and our desires and dreams. It differs from science in its aims and methods, but Babuts shows in other respects that literature has much common ground with science. Both aim for an authentic version of truth. To this end, literature employs metaphors, and it does so in a manner similar to that of scientific inquiry.The cognitive view does not imply that there is a one-to-one correlation between the world and text, that meaning belongs to the author, or that literature is equivalent to perception. What it does maintain is that meaning is crucially dependent on mnemonic initiatives and that without memory, the world remains meaningless. Nicolae Babuts claims that at the interface with the printed page, readers process texts in a manner similar to the way they explain the visible world: in segments or units of meaning or dynamic patterns.Babuts argues that humans achieve recognition by integrating stimulus sequences with corresponding patterns that recognize and interpret each segment of a text. Memory produces meaning from these patterns. In harmony with its goals, memory may adopt specific strategies to deal with different stimuli. Dynamic patterns link the unit of processing with the unit of meaning. In sum, Babuts proposes that meaning is achieved through metaphors and narrative, and that both are ways to reach cognitive goals. This original study offers perspectives that will interest cognitive psychologists, as well as those simply interested in the process through which literature stirs the human imagination.