@article{ART002968685},
author={Yong-Sung Paik},
title={McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor},
journal={The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art},
issn={1229-0246},
year={2023},
volume={69},
pages={82-114},
doi={10.17527/JASA.69.0.04}
TY - JOUR
AU - Yong-Sung Paik
TI - McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor
JO - The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
PY - 2023
VL - 69
IS - null
PB - 한국미학예술학회
SP - 82
EP - 114
SN - 1229-0246
AB - This paper discusses the central thesis of Marshall McLuhan’s posthumous work, The Laws of Media: A New Science, which is that media are metaphors: that they are a form of language and as such are metaphors that translate experience from one form to another. This raises the question of the origins of spoken language (the medium) itself, because if we do not capture how the first words become metaphors, we are left with a seemingly self-evident unbridgeable gap between literal and figurative meanings. Foster argues that humanity’s first words were born out of a process of symbolization through affective mimesis, and that “phememes” then constitute the first media translations and metaphors of human experience. This is consistent with McLuhan’s emphasis on layers of primordial mimesis. McLuhan’s metaphor theory gains its ontological source through the translational function of these phememes and the origin of the figure/ground dynamic that he himself emphasizes. We also critically discuss the limitations of a transmission-theoretic or left-brain approach to metaphor theory. McLuhan’s metaphor theory thus extends beyond language in the narrow sense to the medium as a whole, and in particular to the quadruple action of the medium’s tetrad.
KW - McLuhan;metaphor;mimesis;Phememe;tetrad
DO - 10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
ER -
Yong-Sung Paik. (2023). McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 69, 82-114.
Yong-Sung Paik. 2023, "McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor", The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, vol.69, pp.82-114. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik "McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 69 pp.82-114 (2023) : 82.
Yong-Sung Paik. McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor. 2023; 69 82-114. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik. "McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 69(2023) : 82-114.doi: 10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik. McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 69, 82-114. doi: 10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik. McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art. 2023; 69 82-114. doi: 10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik. McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor. 2023; 69 82-114. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
Yong-Sung Paik. "McLuhan and the Problem of Media Origins: Primordial Language, Mimesis, and Metaphor" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 69(2023) : 82-114.doi: 10.17527/JASA.69.0.04
