1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456008303321

Autore

Burrow J. A (John Anthony)

Titolo

Gestures and looks in medieval narrative / / J.A. Burrow [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002

ISBN

1-107-13412-9

0-521-05066-9

0-511-14793-7

0-511-32575-4

0-511-12073-7

0-511-48324-4

1-280-15970-7

0-511-04580-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 200 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; ; 48

Disciplina

809/.93355

Soggetti

Literature, Medieval - History and criticism

Narration (Rhetoric) - History - To 1500

Nonverbal communication in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-195) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Gestures -- Looks -- Two Middle English narratives -- Dante's Commedia -- Afterword.

Sommario/riassunto

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.