The making of the literary symbol: Taking note of Langer ROBERT E. INNIS Abstract Why, in light of the multiple approaches to literature that mark the various semiotic traditions and their complex intertwinings, would one turn to Sus- anne Langer’s seemingly ‘marginal’ or idiosyncratic semiotic theory of art for conceptual resources? I argue that the conceptual core of the answer is found in Langer’s notion of a ‘symbol of feeling,’ which is connected with her notion of ‘semblance,’ the imaginal power of art symbols to construct and present their own ‘primary illusions.’ Works of literature — of the po- etic art — do not follow a discursive, but rather a presentational logic, giv- ing us access to ‘virtual experience.’ Keywords: symbol; semblance; primary illusions; virtual experience; Langer. 1. Introduction Why, in light of the multiple approaches to literature that mark the var- ious semiotic traditions and their complex intertwinings, would one turn to Susanne Langer’s seemingly ‘marginal’ or idiosyncratic semiotic theory of art for conceptual resources? An art work, in any genre, is for Langer essentially a ‘symbol of feel- ing.’ Langer’s use of the notion of a symbol is not that of Saussure, which involves motivation, nor of Peirce, which is purely conventional, nor of the ‘symbolic’ tradition. A ‘symbol’ for her, following Whitehead, is any device by means of which we can make an abstraction (Feeling and Form: xi, hereafter FF). For Langer a symbol mediates knowledge, giving us cognitive control, or insight, in one way or another. An aesthetic symbol, on Langer’s conception, is an abstraction device that is meant to give us knowledge of ‘feeling.’ Feeling, in Langer’s use of the term, is bipolar: it Semiotica 165–1/4 (2007), 91–106 0037–1998/07/0165–0091 DOI 10.1515/SEM.2007.0aa 6 Walter de Gruyter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 (AutoPDF V7 2/4/07 14:22) WDG (148225mm) TimesM J-1749 Semiotica, 165 PMU: J(A1) 23/3/2007 pp. 91–106 1749_165_05 (p. 91)