According to S. K. Langer, people create meaning through presentational and discursive symbolism. Presentational symbolism, Langer suggests, is an abstracted sense of experienced life, while discursive symbolism is a series of subordinating or coordinating positions that set in motion the relation of ideas and permits the discussion of causation. Langer's influence is evident in J. Britton's emphasis on human symbolmaking activities and J. Kinneavy's view of discourse theory. Neither, however, give as much importance as Langer to presentational symbolism. In stressing that language can transmit form nonlinearly, Langer brings romantic and classical approaches to language into a coherent relationship. When writers are able to fuse presentational and discursive forms, they transform the reader's sense of reality, fusing art and knowledge. Langer's ideas shed new light on composition theories. (MM)