Mimesis, artistic inspiration and the blends we live by

Abstract

Abstract:The cognitive linguists Turner (1998, 2002) have proposed that human creativity may be modeled by their theory of conceptual blending (conceptual integration). I apply blending theory to the pragmatics of fiction, showing how blending theory explains the mechanics of literary mimesis. I investigate how conceptual blends are iteratively chained, arguing that a mimetic blend can be defined as a blend that selfreferentially embeds itself into subsequent blends. Using examples from Mario Vargas Llosa's novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and its cinematic adaptation as Tune in Tomorrow, I show how these mimetic blends can be a literary device whereby an author may offer metafictional social commentary on issues such as the ability of art to incite fictive emotion or even violence on the part of the art-viewer. However, blending theorists typically fail to note important methodological issues raised by whether they are modeling the person who is interpreting (as opposed to who is creating) the conceptual blends. This shortcoming leads me to propose a "space-swapping" hypothesis which argues that the differences between creativity and interpretation can be at least partly explained by the differing roles played by highly similar mental spaces.

B(l)ending time, (de)compressing identity: Creative thought and meaning construction inCopy Shop(2001)

“…Most of its creativity-related applications do not seek to explicate the unique cognitive mechanisms in which the producer of a creative product is involved, a research project that might entail focusing on the heuristics employed by the producer when seeking to populate the input spaces of the deployed Conceptual Integration Network (CIN) in a given goal-oriented context (Veale, Feyaerts, & Forceville, 2013b). Instead, they tend to conflate the roles of producer and consumer, implicitly proposing the deduction of the former’s creative perspective from the established creative product through a process of reverse-engineering the latter’s meaning-making strategies (Rohrer, 2005). Although this is a sustainable objection, the tacit binary between producer and consumer that underlies it upholds a conception of the creative process as extending linearly and unidirectionally from creative inception to finished product.…”

Narrative Time, Sequence, and Memory: A Blending Analysis

“…Interesting examples can be found in Rohrer (2005) elements have a dual role. Within the story, this imitates Leonard's perception of what happens, since he lacks the memory of the grounding when every new scene opens and relies on his notes and photos.…”

Unrealistic scenarios, metaphorical blends and rhetorical strategies across genres

“…As Rohrer (2005) points out: blending theorists have typically not differentiated the perspective of the reader from that of the author in their analyses. In giving their analyses, blending theorists often construe their interpretation of the blend to be identical to both other readers' and the author's perspective.…”

“…In giving their analyses, blending theorists often construe their interpretation of the blend to be identical to both other readers' and the author's perspective. (Rohrer 2005(Rohrer : 1687 In the case of the octopus game, readers can only construct something approximating the conceptual integration network I have outlined above after reading the whole section on 'Computing by connections' , which consists of 14 pages and includes several sub-sections. The three paragraphs I quoted above are only preceded by a very brief and general description of neural network computation, and outline a scenario whose setting and participants are drawn exclusively from what I have called the 'octopus' input space.…”

“…Blending theory, on the other hand, is concerned with online meaning construction, and can more adequately account for the meanings generated by unconventional or novel metaphors. In the course of the discussion, I show, however, that, contrary to established practice within applications of Blending theory, different descriptions are needed in order to account for meaning construction on the part of writers as opposed to (different kinds of) readers (see also Rohrer 2005). I also reflect on the rhetorical use of my examples of unrealistic scenarios, which are exploited for explanatory and/or persuasive purposes by writers whose view of the topic of the text is considerably more detailed and sophisticated than that of the main audience they are addressing, as well as potentially controversial.…”