Synesthesia in literature
Encyclopedia
Synesthesia
is a neurological condition in which one or more sensory modalities become linked. However, for over a century, the term synesthesia has also been used to refer to artistic and poetic devices which attempt to express a linkage between the senses. To better understand the influence of synesthesia in popular culture and the way it is viewed by non-synesthetes, it is informative to examine books in which one of the main characters is portrayed as experiencing synesthesia. In addition to these fictional portrayals, the way in which synesthesia is presented in non-fiction books to non-specialist audiences is instructive. Author and synesthete Patricia Lynne Duffy
has described four ways in which synesthete characters have been used in modern fiction.
Please note that not all of the depictions of synesthesia in the fictional works are accurate. Some are highly inaccurate and reflect more about the author's interpretation of synesthesia than about the phenomenon itself. The scientific works are intended to be accurate depictions of synesthetic experiences. However, as research advances some of the specific details in those accounts may be superseded or corrected by subsequent studies.
’s The Gift and Invitation to a Beheading
.
With the increased research into synesthesia from the 1990’s into the twenty-first century, more novels have appeared with synesthete-characters. Since 2001, more than 15 novels featuring synesthete-characters have been published. According to author Patricia Lynne Duffy in her presentations on "Images of Synesthetes in Fiction", portrayals of these characters and their synesthesia generally fall into four categories: (1) synesthesia as Romantic ideal; (2) synesthesia as pathology; (3) synesthesia as Romantic pathology; (4) synesthesia as health and balance for some individuals (Duffy, 2006, 2007).
Below is an explanation of each of Duffy's four proposed categories along with an example of a novel in that category:
Synesthesia as Romantic
In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, The Gift, the main character Fyodor is a gifted young poet who experiences synesthesia. Fyodor’s synesthetic experience of language is compared to that of nineteenth-century French
Symbolist
poet, Arthur Rimbaud
(as expressed in the latter’s poem, Voyelles about the perception of colored vowel sounds). The following quote from the novel shows that Fyodor perceives a sublime beauty in letters and sounds, which he shares with others through poetic description: "If I had some paints handy, I would mix burnt sienna and sepia for you as to match the color of a 'ch' sound..and you would appreciate my radiant 's' if I could pour into your cupped hands some of those luminous sapphires that I touched as a child." In writing about synesthesia, Nabokov was likely drawing on his own synesthetic experiences, which he details in his autobiography, Speak, Memory
.
Synesthesia
Synesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
is a neurological condition in which one or more sensory modalities become linked. However, for over a century, the term synesthesia has also been used to refer to artistic and poetic devices which attempt to express a linkage between the senses. To better understand the influence of synesthesia in popular culture and the way it is viewed by non-synesthetes, it is informative to examine books in which one of the main characters is portrayed as experiencing synesthesia. In addition to these fictional portrayals, the way in which synesthesia is presented in non-fiction books to non-specialist audiences is instructive. Author and synesthete Patricia Lynne Duffy
Patricia Lynne Duffy
Patricia Lynne Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme. She has an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University...
has described four ways in which synesthete characters have been used in modern fiction.
Please note that not all of the depictions of synesthesia in the fictional works are accurate. Some are highly inaccurate and reflect more about the author's interpretation of synesthesia than about the phenomenon itself. The scientific works are intended to be accurate depictions of synesthetic experiences. However, as research advances some of the specific details in those accounts may be superseded or corrected by subsequent studies.
Literary Depictions
In addition to its role in art, synesthesia has often been used as a plot device or as a way of developing a particular character's internal states. Synesthetes have appeared in novels including Vladimir NabokovVladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
’s The Gift and Invitation to a Beheading
Invitation to a Beheading
Invitation to a Beheading is a novel by Russian American author Vladimir Nabokov. It was originally published in Russian in 1935-1936 as a serial in Contemporary Notes , a highly respected Russian émigré magazine...
.
With the increased research into synesthesia from the 1990’s into the twenty-first century, more novels have appeared with synesthete-characters. Since 2001, more than 15 novels featuring synesthete-characters have been published. According to author Patricia Lynne Duffy in her presentations on "Images of Synesthetes in Fiction", portrayals of these characters and their synesthesia generally fall into four categories: (1) synesthesia as Romantic ideal; (2) synesthesia as pathology; (3) synesthesia as Romantic pathology; (4) synesthesia as health and balance for some individuals (Duffy, 2006, 2007).
Below is an explanation of each of Duffy's four proposed categories along with an example of a novel in that category:
Synesthesia as RomanticRomanticismRomanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
ideal
In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, The Gift, the main character Fyodor is a gifted young poet who experiences synesthesia. Fyodor’s synesthetic experience of language is compared to that of nineteenth-century FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
poet, Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
(as expressed in the latter’s poem, Voyelles about the perception of colored vowel sounds). The following quote from the novel shows that Fyodor perceives a sublime beauty in letters and sounds, which he shares with others through poetic description: "If I had some paints handy, I would mix burnt sienna and sepia for you as to match the color of a 'ch' sound..and you would appreciate my radiant 's' if I could pour into your cupped hands some of those luminous sapphires that I touched as a child." In writing about synesthesia, Nabokov was likely drawing on his own synesthetic experiences, which he details in his autobiography, Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory is an autobiographical memoir by writer Vladimir Nabokov.-Scope:The book is dedicated to his wife, Véra, and covers his life from 1903 until his emigration to America in 1940. The first twelve chapters describe Nabokov's remembrance of his youth in an aristocratic family living in...
.
Synesthesia as pathology
Certain types of synesthetic experience can also be induced by brain injuries. Duffy notes that a character's synesthesia is sometimes shown as a pathological condition related to brain injury. For example, in the novel, The Whole World Over by Julia Glass, the character Saga experiences words as having color after she has an accident that causes a head trauma. In the quote, Duffy illustrates how the perceived colors are a distraction for the character: "The word would fill her mind for a few minutes with a single color: not an unpleasant sensation but still an intrusion... Patriarch: Brown, she thought, a temple of a word, a shiny red brown, like the surface of a chestnut."Synesthesia as Romantic pathology
This category of synesthesia combines the previous two: the character’s synesthesia is portrayed as pathology — but a "glorious" pathology, allowing him/her to perceive more sublime levels of reality. In Holly Payne’s novel, The Sound of Blue, the character, Milan, a composer, perceives music as having beautiful color, but his synesthetic experience indicates an oncoming epileptic seizure: "Without color, he heard nothing. He filled notebooks with the sound of yellow and red. Purple. Green... Like Liszt and Stravinsky, Kandinsky and Rimbaud, Milan shared the multisensory perception of synesthetes, and unfortunately the seizures that about 4 per cent of them endured... Milan’s epilepsy resulted from his multisensory experiences."Synesthesia as health and balance for some individuals
Duffy argues that in this category of novel, the ability to perceive synesthetically represents health and balance for the particular character. When such characters experience emotional trauma, they lose the ability to perceive synesthetically. After the trauma is resolved, the character regains synesthetic perception, which represents health and wholeness for that individual. Examples of such characters are found in Jane Yardley’s novel, Painting Ruby Tuesday and in Wendy Mass’s children’s novel, A Mango-Shaped Space. In the latter novel, the 13-year-old character, Mia loses her synesthesia after her beloved cat dies, but regains it after she works through the trauma. As her therapist tells her, "Your colors will return, Mia, I promise. And you’ll feel three-dimensional again."Synesthesia in Adult Fiction
Below is a short list of books in which one of the main characters is portrayed as experiencing synesthesia.- Aylett, SteveSteve AylettSteve Aylett is a satirical science fiction and slipstream author of several bizarro books. He is renowned for his colorful satire attacking the manipulations of authority, and for having reams of amusing epigrams and non-sequiturs only tangentially related to what little linear plot the books...
(2005). Lint. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. - Baudelaire, CharlesCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
. "" in Les Fleurs du MalLes Fleurs du malLes Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 , it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements...
.ar - Bender, Aimee (2010) "The Particular Ssdness of Lemon Cake"
- Berry, M. (2005). Blind Crescent. Toronto: Penguin.
- Bester, AlfredAlfred BesterAlfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
(1956). The Stars My DestinationThe Stars My DestinationThe Stars My Destination is a science fiction novel by Alfred Bester. Originally serialized in Galaxy magazine in four parts beginning with the October 1956 issue, it first appeared in book form in the United Kingdom as Tiger! Tiger! – after William Blake's poem "The Tyger", the first verse...
. New York: Vintage - Chevalier, T. (1999). Girl with a Pearl Earring. Dutton Adult.
- Ford, JeffreyJeffrey FordJeffrey Ford is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales...
(2005). Nebula Awards Showcase 2005. New York: Penguin. - Forster, E. M.E. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
(1911). "The Celestial Omnibus" in The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories.The Celestial OmnibusThe Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories is the title of a collection of short stories by E. M. Forster, first published in 1911. It contains stories written over the previous ten years, and together with the collection The Eternal Moment forms part of Forster's Collected Short Stories...
United Kingdom: Sidgwick & Jackson. - Halvorson, Eileen (2009). The Color of Light. Aonian Press.
- Herbert, FrankFrank HerbertFranklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
The DuneDuneIn physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
saga. Synesthesia is experienced by the Atreides family, notably PaulPaul AtreidesPaul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
and Leto IILeto Atreides IILeto Atreides II is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of Dune Messiah , Leto is a central character in Children of Dune and is the title character of God Emperor of Dune . The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
. - Huysmans, J.-K.Joris-Karl HuysmansCharles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
(1884; English translation by Robert BaldickRobert BaldickRobert Baldick was a British scholar of French literature, writer, joint editor of the Penguin Classics series with Betty Radice and a well-known translator. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford....
, 1959). À reboursÀ reboursÀ rebours is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans...
[Against Nature] . London: Penguin Books. - Kernan, B. M. (2002). The Synesthete. Lincoln, NE: Writer's Showcase.
- Koontz, DeanDean KoontzDean Ray Koontz is a prolific American author best known for his novels which could be described broadly as suspense thrillers. He also frequently incorporates elements of horror, science fiction, mystery, and satire. A number of his books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, with...
. (1996). IntensityIntensity (novel)-Plot summary:Chyna Shepard is a college student visiting the family of her friend, Laura Templeton, for a long weekend. Chyna, who was abused and neglected by her mother as a child, finds the Templeton house provides something she has yearned: acceptance...
. New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group - Meldrum, Christina (2011). "Amaryllis in Blueberry". New York: Gallery Books
- Moore, J. (2004). The Memory Artists. Toronto: Penguin.
- Morall, C. (2004). Astonishing Splashes of Colour. Harper Collins.
- Nabokov, VladimirVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
(1991/1938). The GiftThe Gift (Nabokov book)The Gift is Vladimir Nabokov's final Russian novel, and is considered to be his farewell to the world he was leaving behind. Nabokov wrote it between 1935 and 1937 while living in Berlin, and it was published in serial form under his nom de plume, Vladimir Sirin.The Gift's fourth chapter, a...
. New York: Vintage. - Nabokov, VladimirVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. - Neal, J. M. (2007). Specific Gravity. Dunn Avenue Press.
- Neal, J. M. (2008). Ontario Lacus. Dunn Avenue Press.
- Payne, Holly (2005). The Sound of Blue. New York: Penguin Group.
- Parker, T. J. (2006). The Fallen. New York: William Morrow.
- Rimbaud, ArthurArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
. "Les Voyelles". - Salzman, MarkMark SalzmanMark Joseph Salzman is an American writer. Salzman is best known for his 1986 memoir Iron & Silk, which describes his experiences living in China as an English teacher in the early 1980s....
Lying Awake. - Shelley, MaryMary ShelleyMary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
. (1818). "FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
." London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones. - Smith, Dominic (2007). The Beautiful Miscellaneous: A Novel. New York: Atria.
- Truong, Monique (2010) "Bitter in the Mouth"
- Vaz, K. (1994). Saudade. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- Vian, BorisBoris VianBoris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
(2003). Foam of the Daze. Tam-Tam Books. (former translation: Mood Indigo.) - Yardley, JaneJane YardleyJane Yardley is an English author, raised in a village in 1960s Essex, . She went to university in London and gained a Ph.D. degree from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School...
(2003). Painting Ruby Tuesday. London: Doubleday.
Synesthesia in Teenage/children’s Fiction
- Anderson, R.J. (2011). Ultraviolet UK: Orchard.
- Bosch, Pseudonymous (2007). The Name of This Book is Secret. New York: Little Brown and Co.
- Mass, W. (2003). A Mango-Shaped Space. London: Little Brown and Co.
- Montgomery, L.M. (1913). The Golden RoadThe Golden Road (1913 novel)The Golden Road is a 1913 novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery.-Background:As a child, Montgomery learned many stories from her great aunt Mary Lawson. She later used these in The Story Girl and The Golden Road....
. - Morgan, N. (2003). Mondays are Red. New York: Delacorte.
Synesthesia in Graphic Novels & Comic Books
- Di Filippo, P., and Ordway, J. (2006). Top 10Top 10 (comic book)Top 10 is a superhero comic book limited series published by the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm, itself an imprint of DC Comics...
: Beyond the Farthest Precinct. La Jolla, CA: America's Best Comics. - MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, A., Ha, G., and Cannon, Z. (2000). Top 10Top 10 (comic book)Top 10 is a superhero comic book limited series published by the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm, itself an imprint of DC Comics...
: Book 1. La Jolla, CA: America's Best Comics. - MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, A., Ha, G. and Cannon, Z. (2002). Top 10Top 10 (comic book)Top 10 is a superhero comic book limited series published by the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm, itself an imprint of DC Comics...
: Book 2. La Jolla, CA: America's Best Comics.
Non-fiction general audience books
- Ackerman, D. (1994). chapter on "Synesthesia" in A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage.
- Baron-Cohen, S.Simon Baron-CohenSimon Baron-Cohen FBA is professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College...
and Harrison, J. (1997). Synaesthesia: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19764-8. - Cytowic, R. (2003). The Man Who Tasted Shapes. New York: Tarcher/Putman. ISBN 0-262-53255-7.
- Dann, K. (1998). Bright Colors Falsely Seen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-300-06619-8.
- Duffy, P. L.Patricia Lynne DuffyPatricia Lynne Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme. She has an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University...
(2001). Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-7167-4088-5. - Harrison, J. (2001). Synaesthesia: the strangest thing, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-263245-0.
- Luria, A.R.Alexander LuriaAlexander Romanovich Luria was a famous Soviet neuropsychologist and developmental psychologist. He was one of the founders of neuropsychology and the jointly led the Vygotsky Circle.- Biography :...
(1968). The Mind of a Mnemonist. New York: Basic Books. - Lvovich, N. (1997). Chapter 2, "Confessions of a Synesthete" in The Multilingual Self. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Ramachandran, V.S.Vilayanur S. RamachandranVilayanur Subramanian "Rama" Ramachandran, born 1951, is a neuroscientist known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics...
(2004). A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers. Pi Press. ISBN 0-131-48686-1 - Sacks, O. (1995). "The Case of the Colorblind Painter" in An Anthropologist on Mars. New York: Vintage.
Patricia Duffy’s presentations on "Images of Synesthetes in Fiction"
- "Image of the Synesthete in Modern Fiction", International Conference on Synesthesia, University of Hanover Medical School, December 3, 2006.
- "Images of Synesthetes and their Perceptions of Language in Fiction" presentation by Patricia Lynne DuffyPatricia Lynne DuffyPatricia Lynne Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme. She has an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University...
at the 6th American Synesthesia AssociationAmerican Synesthesia AssociationThe American Synesthesia Association is a not-for-profit academic and public society whose mission is to foster and promote the education and the advancement of knowledge of the phenomena of synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation in one sensory modality leads to experiences in...
Conference, University of South Florida, January 28, 2006. - "Images of Synesthetes and their Perceptions of Language in Contemporary Fiction", presentation by Patricia Lynne DuffyPatricia Lynne DuffyPatricia Lynne Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme. She has an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University...
at the 5th American Synesthesia AssociationAmerican Synesthesia AssociationThe American Synesthesia Association is a not-for-profit academic and public society whose mission is to foster and promote the education and the advancement of knowledge of the phenomena of synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation in one sensory modality leads to experiences in...
Conference, University of Texas at Houston medical School, October 2005.