An Introduction to Art, Literature, and the Empirical Paradigm
By Aldo Nemesio

Baruch BLICH
About Art
Abstract: In his article, "About Art," Baruch Blich investigates why is art -- and especially modern art -- so difficult to understand? Why do art objects raise questions as to their status? Why scrutinizing art involves semiotics, philosophy of language, linguistics, epistemology, ontology, and even metaphysics? Why art is interpreted by psychoanalysis as well as by behaviorism and psychology of perception? What anthropology and sociology have to do with art and why do we witness art debated in the courtroom concerning copyright issues? In short -- what makes art a crossroad for many and sometimes conflicting disciplines? Is there something in art which compels us to tune our commonsense reactions differently? The answer to these queries, and many others, can be squeezed into one word -- "aboutness": art's reference to reality is constituted on conventions far out from the commonly accepted rules of thumb. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to shed light on the use of mimesis, representation, depiction, and by the same token explicate why their use in the context of art bear special and unique meanings.

W. Ray CROZIER
Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls
Abstract: In his article, "Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls," W. Ray Crozier argues that biographical evidence points to considerable individual variation in writers' output over the life span even when allowance is made for longevity and length of writing career. This issue has been neglected by psychological accounts of creativity. Crozier outlines a theoretical framework for understanding variation in terms of an "artistic career." This is conceptualised as a sequence of projects, the success of which are influenced by intra-project factors such as the rewardingness and difficulties of literary projects and extra-project factors such as work pressures, poverty, and competing demands on time. This account is compared to an explanation proposed by Dean Keith Simonton, which emphasises the reduction over time in the potential to produce new work. The framework is applied to the analysis of biographical material on six writers of fiction who were all critically acclaimed writers who lived until at least their eightieth year but who were among the least productive in a large sample of twentieth-century British novelists.

Antonio FUSCO and Rosella TOMASSONI
A Psychological Outline of  "Yerma's Dream"
Abstract: In their article, "A Psychological Outline of  'Yerma's Dream'," Fusco and Tomassoni examine the world of Lorca in his play. Fusco and Tomassoni present an examination of the psychological characteristicsof this world, and focus their attention upon a dream of one its female protagonists. Yerma is observed to be a heroine of "sterility" -- or rather, the heroine of an impossibility to love. The heroics of this impossibility is interpreted according to the social constraints made upon women within a male dominated society. These constraints are said to surface symptomatically within her own dream world -- as a heroine who is allowed to experience love only in the form of an illegitimate desire to procreate.

László HALÁSZ,  Károly HANTOS, and Balázs FAA
A Study of the Effect of Reception of Works of Art through an Interactive CD-ROM
Abstract: In their article, "A Study of the Effect of Reception of Works of Art through an Interactive CD-ROM," Halász, Hantos, and Faa collected data on the aesthetic impact of art objects through multimedia. They constructed a CD-ROM out of various images, sounds and text. Items were offered to 135 secondary school subjects in the framework of directed interactive polychrome variations. The effect was studied partly by measuring viewing (reading) times for each item, and partly by semantic differential and attitude scales. The data for viewing time and phases, and of items of the semantic differential and attitude scales were analyzed for females and males, for long and short timers, and for the more and less experienced. It was concluded that knowledge of the basic indices of the receivers' characteristics offered a high predictive value regarding the relationship between attitude towards multimedia and (aesthetic) effect. Consequently, interactive artistic multimedia is in itself an unsatisfactory educational tool, requiring further interaction with an educator.

Mariselda TESSAROLO
The Perception of the Song and Its Video Clip
Abstract: In her article, "The Perception of the Song and Its Video Clip," Mariselda Tessarolo examines the relationship between image and music within promotional video clips. Tessarolo observes that images underline the music, where the song  marks the rhythm to be given over (and into) the images. As a consequence, emotion prevails over narration within video clips: Affect is their desired effect. The Schwichtenberg typology is used to determine the nature of the relation between emotional and perceptual response. Video clips were classified according to the way they enact this relation, and 100 university students provided the responses to be evaluated. Research was done in accordance with the semantic differential technique, which detects and evaluates affective meaning. The research design planned for the administration of separate songs and video clips, and the resulting data underwent factorial and cluster analyses.

Bibliography

Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. "A Selected Bibliography of Works in the Systemic and Empirical, Institution, and Field Approaches to Literature and Culture (to 1998)."
Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. "A Selected Bibliography of Work in Systemic and Empirical Approaches to Literature, 1969-1995."
Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. "Systemic Approaches to Literature -- An Introduction with Selected Bibliographies." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 19.1-2 (1992): 21-93.

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