Conference Presentations by John Tuskey
Poetic effects are described by relevance theorists as affording rich, creative interpretive expe... more Poetic effects are described by relevance theorists as affording rich, creative interpretive experiences, but they do little to explain why these effects can be more valuable or sought after than propositionally-structured communication. I propose that relevance theory can view poetic and non-propositional effect as inhabiting a dimension of meta-relevance. Under this view, a poem, or any instance of communication, is meta-relevant insofar as the search for relevance leads to an exposure of, or otherwise affects, interpretive faculties such that future searches for relevance are modified or enhanced. That is, a meta-relevant communication is a meaningful experience itself, which affords novel ways of understanding communication and meaning. Necessarily, searching for meta-relevance requires more cognitive effort, but yields more payoff than more local searches for relevance. This view explains that the difficulty of understanding non-propositional effects is a result of their tendency to be meta-relevant, thus necessarily pushing the paraphrasing abilities of interpreters to new limits. This addition better orients relevance theory for approaching the status of a cognitive theory of poetry and literature.
Drafts by John Tuskey
Capitalism is a religion with its own form of enchantment. Faith in capitalism is placed in human... more Capitalism is a religion with its own form of enchantment. Faith in capitalism is placed in humanity's technological progress to create a world that is far better than the one we live in - faith is placed in ourselves to save ourselves. The enchantment of capitalism is a kind of self-enchantment, and is by nature idolatrous. I propose a method, using a negative-dialectical framework as a model, for transforming the idolatrous gaze to a gaze which renders the world iconic. It provides iconic 'antitheses' to the idolatrous 'theses' of capitalism. I call this method Dialectical Theosis.
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Conference Presentations by John Tuskey
Drafts by John Tuskey