Part of what is valuable about art is that it can bring about an affective response.1 A common method for causing this kind of reaction is the portrayal of emotional experiences.2 However, when we consider the depiction of feelings, we are not perceiving the individuals themselves undergoing them. Furthermore, usually these experiences never occurred. Thus how do we recognize depicted emotions, particularly when they are fictional? A work will successfully portray feelings provided that they can be recognized. Therefore the question of what are the means we employ to identify them is central to any art that uses emotions to engage the viewer.
It is through certain dimensions of a work that feelings are portrayed and thereby recognized. They are those components, either verbal or non-verbal, that are informative of an emotional experience. Often they are concerned with an individual’s behavior or the circumstances surrounding it. Examples are depictions of facial expressions, gestures, and postures. I will call the kind of entity being depicted an “emotion cue.”3
An emotion cue is any event or state of affairs that carries information about a person’s feelings.4 We use them in everyday life to comprehend another’s experience. I will establish that this ability provides our means for identifying feelings that are portrayed. I will propose an analysis of these cues and bring out the importance of the distinction between a token of a cue and its corresponding type. We will find that the concept of a type of emotion cue is particularly relevant.5 My analysis will show how we employ information about them to recognize portrayed feelings. The following discussion will thereby increase our understanding of our affective response to art.