McLuhan and Symbolist Communication. The Shock of Dislocation

Symbolism as a ʽparataxisʼ, as a ʽjazz of the intellectʼ. This is the starting point of this research, inspired by a socio-literary interpretation of McLuhan’s mediology and developed from a diachronic and exegetic perspective. According to the Canadian sociologist, the footsteps that led to the electric era can be traced through the study of certain writers and poets, whose symbolism provides a number of sociological hints foreshadowing our media modernity. This work aims at investigating the role of symbolism in McLuhan’s sociological research, by outlining how the study of memory and the analysis of literary tradition are fundamental to understand the complex development of communication and cultural studies. This research focuses on the function of symbols as interpretative keys forthe study of media carried out by McLuhan. It is exactly in this artistic movement that the sociologist finds the opportunity to analyze the representative practices (irrational and linear) of modern men, shaped by the reticular patterns of the mind. From this perspective, McLuhan identifies the creative process that lies at the root of symbolist poetry, indentified as ʽa disposition, a parataxis, of components that draws a particular intuition through precise links, but without a point of view, that is a linear connection or sequential orderʼ.