The influence of anxiety: poetry as a theory of mind
Abstract
Cognitive researchers are increasingly turning to an examination of the role nonrational elements, like sensations and emotions, play in cognitive processing. Unlike normal language use, poetic language does not simply represent emotions and sensations, it evokes them. Understanding how it does so contributes to understanding the cognitive workings of the mind. Since schemata operate at the intersection of the nonrational preconscious and conscious awareness, a theoretical model that explains how the interrelations of conceptual and emotion schemata in poetry both motivate and convey emotional-sensory feelings can shed light on how those feelings participate in cognition. To show how such a theoretical model works, I conclude with an analysis of a poem by Wallace Stevens, “Domination of Black.”
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