Gestures and Looks in Medieval Narrative

Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-0-521-81564-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 48, 214 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 508 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature

In medieval society, gestures and speaking looks played an even more important part in public and private exchanges than they do today. Gestures meant more than words, for example, in ceremonies of homage and fealty. In this, the first study of its kind in English, John Burrow examines the role of non-verbal communication in a wide range of narrative texts, including Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory's Morte D'arthur, the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, the Prose Lancelot, Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, and Dante's Commedia. Burrow argues that since non-verbal signs are in general less subject to change than words, many of the behaviours recorded in these texts, such as pointing and amorous gazing, are familiar in themselves; yet many prove easy to misread, either because they are no longer common, like bowing, or because their use has changed, like winking.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Burrow, J. A.

Minnis, Alastair

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Gestures; 3. Looks; 4. Two Middle English narratives; 5. Dante's Commedia; 6. Afterword; Bibliography; Index of names and titles; Index of signs.

Über Autor(innen)

Burrow, J. A.
John Burrow is Emeritus Professor and Research Fellow in the Department of English at Bristol University. He has published widely on middle English literature. His books include Medieval Writers and Their Work (1982).