Symbolism, Synesthesia, and Semiotics, Multidisciplinary Approach

About the Book

Have you ever heard about symbols and sounds or music inherently associated with colors? Have you ever heard about people who always dream in color, see sounds or hear colors, odors, and who cannot dissociate days of week, months, numbers and letters from specific colors? This phenomenon is real and called ‘synesthesia’. It can be literary, scientific, and/or cognitive. It is analyzed within the framework of symbolism and neuroscience. It takes place in the left hemisphere of the human brain and the neo-cortex. It is activated by the limbic system and the tangling of two or more synapses. In this book, I aspire to reflect on this phenomenon under the auspices of symbolism and neuroscience. However, I will emphasize the literary aspect of synesthesia (synesthesia as a metaphor) while pondering on symbolism as a general trend along with its scientific and cognitive aspects.

About the Author

Bonaventure Balla-Omgba is an Assistant Professor at Winston- Salem State University in North Carolina. He holds a PhD in French/ Francophone Literature with a focus on Structuralist Semiotics, an MA in French, another MA in English and speaks seven languages: French, English, Spanish, Beti, Latin, Japanese and Fang. He has been a trilingual translator (English- French-Spanish) for 28 years and is currently a member of the American Translators Association (ATA). Dr. Balla has been a professor/instructor for 22 years in West Africa (13), France (1) and the US (8). He is the author of two collections of poems entitled Astres et Désastres (in French Language published in Belgium), and Odes for Black Diamonds (in English) published in the US. He has also written and published several conference papers and articles in English and French. He is fi nishing writing two books: Euphoria and Dysphoria, and The Keys of Translation “Science.” Additionally, he is a black belt in Karate and has been practicing and teaching it for 27 years. He is an active member of several professional organizations.