Langer's Symbolic Expression: The Nature Of Art

She emphasizes that art is “the practice of creating perceptible forms expressive of human feeling” (6). She use the term “feeling” that applies to all emotion of human feeling that may be felt. Another word Langer use to explain is “creation and form” which involves the cultural importance and the nature of art. She adds on her argument defining that “expression” has two form of meaning. One meaning is self-expression in “giving vent to our feelings” by referring what he or she feel. Another meaning is presentation of an idea through a symbol combination of meaningful words. Langer emphasizes on her argument on reasons on language is a form of communication. She interprets that, “Language will formulate new ideals as well as communicate old ones, so that all people know a lot of things that they have merely heard or read about” (8). She adds on about concept of symbolic expression extends the knowledge beyond the scope of the actual experience. She later on argues that language plays an important role in art in ways of expression that, “the things we can say are in effect the things we can think” (8). She claims that without words of language that the sense experience is just a flow of impression. Langer points out that, “the expressiveness of art is like that of a symbol, not that

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger implies that what we see comes before what we speak or think. He provides an illustrate example as how a child will look and recognize the object before it speaks. He argues that, “It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain the world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it” (7). He observes that how people see things is affected by what one was taught, belief or