Description
Book SynopsisTrade Reviewthe tonicity and tempo of Bolens's writing make for a startling and rewarding exercise. * T. Lindvall, CHOICE Connect, Vol. 59 No. 8 *
Guillemette Bolens's new book takes her powerful theory of kinesic analysis into the rich and complex territory of humor, showing that the sensory and motor resources of human cognition permeate every level of literary culture, including gestural and linguistic play. What she proposes is nothing less than a comprehensive new model of the way humor works, and she demonstrates it through a broad spectrum of brilliantly precise textual analyses. This is comparative cognitive criticism at its very best. * Terence Cave, Emeritus Professor of French Literature, Oxford University *
Kinesic humor—triggered by surprising shifts in the rhythm of gestures—is an important aspect of human sociality; but it takes a scholar of Bolens's brilliance and interdisciplinary expertise to demonstrate that literature can create textual contexts for such humor in the most unexpected places. Embodied cognition is at the heart of the game that literature plays with the reader, and that game, Bolens shows us, is both poignant and funny. * Lisa Zunshine, author of Getting Inside Your Head: What Cognitive Science Tell Us about Popular Culture *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Kinesic Humor and the Dynamics of Gesture Chapter One: Milton: Surprised By Humor Chapter Two: Sterne: The Naturalness of a Toe Movement Chapter Three: Saint-Simon: Speed and Touch, or How to Push a Duke Chapter Four: Rousseau: Fast Breathing and Trembling Hands Chapter Five: Stendhal: Walking Styles and Emotional Practice Chapter Six: Ovid and Chrétien de Troyes: Pyramus, Thisbe, and Yvain's Hypersensitive Lion Chapter Seven: Cervantes: Laughing at a Metaphor Conclusion: Jacques Tati and Eddie Izzard Bibliography Index
