Thursday, August 26, 2010

metarepresentation

Metarepresentation is central to imaginary pleasure. We know, watching the play, that Jocasta is Oedipus's mother; what makes it a good story is that we also know that Jocasta and Oedipus do not themselves know this. The literary scholar and cognitive scientist Lisa Zunshine writes about a Friends episode in which Phoebe discovers that Monica and Chandler are romantically involved, and decides, as a joke, to flirt with Chandler. Monica discovers that Phoebe knows, so, in retaliation, she tells Chandler to welcome Phoebe's advances, so that Phoebe will have to back down, embarrassing herself, but Phoebe then realizes what Monica has in mind. She tells her friends: "They thought they could mess with us. They're trying to mess with us? They don't know that we know that they know we know!"


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