Aesthetic experience, novelty and consciousness in the comprehension of metaphors

This thesis explores theoretical ideas about the nature of metaphors and develops an account of metaphor that integrates both the rational and the emotional in an attempt to explain and embrace that which has not been theoretically addressed in any well-known theories of metaphor – metaphor’s expressiveness. This thesis argues that novelty is the key source of meaning creation in the interpretative process of metaphors and explains how potentialities are at the core of the comprehension of new meaning. This epistemological study considers a wide range of approaches which aim to define cognition, emotions, consciousness, beauty and aesthetic experience. The thesis argues that the interpretation of metaphor relies heavily on organism-environment interactions in the sense that bodily states create an experience which helps interpretation. Equally important, the experience includes awareness of the new association of the ideas because the newness can only arise from processes through creating possibilities and assessing them until arriving at an acceptable conclusion. After revising the theoretical path of metaphor, the thesis expands the idea of embodiment to include cognition as a dynamic interaction between humans, as interpreters and the environment. The argument is then directed to emotions and the critical role of mental imagery in the evocative function of metaphors, the aesthetic experience and the criteria for considering a metaphor to be successful. Synthesizing all of these factors in an account of metaphor, the thesis seeks to address some of the problems in the understanding of the expressiveness of metaphor and the problem of obscurities of meaning. In particular, it clarifies the relationship between novelty/creativity and, on one hand, the moment when the connection in the comparison that gives the surprise is identified, and on the other hand, the awareness of what is significant to arrive at the meaning of the metaphor and to what we choose to represent or to bring to existence through the metaphor