David will be presenting a paper as part of a panel focused on the work of the Society for Comparative Research in Iconic and Performative Texts (SCRIPT), at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
The Parasocial Dimension of Scripture
Fifteen years ago, James Watts helped to define the field of study of Iconic Books with his foundational paper, "The Three Dimensions of Scriptures." In it, he put forth a model for a threefold analysis of material texts in religious contexts, allowing a scholar to consider the balance of the semantic, performative, and iconic dimensions, functioning as field forces that overlap and yield complex social information about a given scriptural object.
This present paper seeks to extend Watts's three dimensions by offering one possible model for defining this complex field effect: parasociality. A parasocial relationship describes a narratively-complex one-sided relationship with a mediated character who, by definition, is unable to reciprocate love and affection. By looking at Watts's Three Dimensions model through the lens of parasociality, we will seek to more fully understand the social power of each dimension singly, and begin to build a parallel analysis to discuss their cumulative socio-material effects.
