Exploring an interface between writing and consciousness

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on the relationship between writing and consciousness. The theme is mainly about objects that move through Linguistics and Psychology areas. At this threshold, Psycholinguistics emerges, which is an autonomous discipline that, at first moment, constitutes itself as an interdisciplinary research area by comprehending aspects from both sciences. In an external interface, writing and consciousness are taken as objects that concern Linguistics and Psychology respectively. In an internal interface, we can study them under the perspectives of Psycholinguistic or Cognitive Psychology. Writing, under the Psycholinguistic view can embrace cognitive processes that operate in the writers’ brain as well as the product that results from the direct action of an agent. Consciousness contemplates a variety of definitions. We adopt the concept of consciousness as the knowledge that people have of their mental objects, whether they are perceptions, images or feelings. In this way, we try to analyze the nature of writing and consciousness, because we presuppose that they consist in cognitive processes that perform mutual influence.