Gilbert Austin's "Chironomia" Revisited: Sympathy, Science, and the Representation of Movement
by Sara Newman and Sigrid Streit
Southern Illinois University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-0-8093-3767-5 | eISBN: 978-0-8093-3768-2 Library of Congress Classification PN4165 Dewey Decimal Classification 808.5
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This first book-length study of Irish educator, clergyman, and author Gilbert Austin as an elocutionary rhetor investigates how his work informs contemporary scholarship on delivery, rhetorical history and theory, and embodied communication. Authors Sara Newman and Sigrid Streit study Austin’s theoretical system, outlined in his 1806 book Chironomia; or A Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery—an innovative study of gestures as a viable, independent language—and consider how Austin’s efforts to incorporate movement and integrate texts and images intersect with present-day interdisciplinary studies of embodiment.
Austin did not simply categorize gesture mechanically, separating delivery from rhetoric and the discipline’s overall goals, but instead he provided a theoretical framework of written descriptions and illustrations that positions delivery as central to effective rhetoric and civic interactions. Balancing the variable physical elements of human interactions as well as the demands of communication, Austin’s system fortuitously anticipated contemporary inquiries into embodied and nonverbal communication. Enlightenment rhetoricians, scientists, and physicians relied on sympathy and its attendant vivacious and lively ideas to convey feelings and facts to their varied audiences. During the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries, as these disciplines formed increasingly distinct, specialized boundaries, they repurposed existing, shared communication conventions to new ends. While the emerging standards necessarily diverged, each was grounded in the subjective, embodied bedrock of the sympathetic, magical tradition.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sara Newman is an emeritus professor of English at Kent State University and the author of Writing Disability: A Critical History.
Sigrid Streit is an assistant professor of English and the director of writing across the curriculum at the University of Detroit Mercy. She has published research in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. This is her first book.
REVIEWS
“An erudite and wide-ranging study placing Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia within its historical context, showing how it fits within the developments in the art of oratory in Britain from the seventeenth century to Austin’s own day. The book brings out clearly Austin’s innovations. It is a valuable contribution to the history of rhetoric, and it shows the relevance of Austin’s work on gesture to contemporary issues in the emerging discipline of ‘gesture studies.’”—Adam Kendon, author of Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance
“This book is part history of rhetoric, part history of science, and a complete revision of Gilbert Austin’s work, a revision that foregrounds sympathy and movement as integral to bodily communication—and to communication writ large.”—Debra Hawhee, author of Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Table
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Austin and Elocution in Context
A Brief History of Delivery
The Scientific Method versus the Sympathetic Message
Sympathy Represents Science and Medicine Sympathy and Language Debated
Science and Sympathy
Rhetorical Sympathy Revisited
The Split
Chapter Outline and Conclusions
Chapter 2. Austin’s Scientific Publications in Context
A Brief History of Scientific Articles
The Air-Pump as an Example
Austin’s Scientific Publications
Summing Up Austin’s Scientific Papers
Chapter 3. Chironomia Revisited Chironomia’s Mission
Separate but Equal Languages
Voluntary and Involuntary Gestures
Taste, Vivacity, and Sympathy
Improper Movements and Failed Communication Conclusions
Chapter 4. Portraying Movement in Chironomia
Austin Acknowledges His Notational Challenges
Artistic Models of Actio
Music Notation
Dance Notation
Austin Introduces the Practical Half of Chironomia
The Foundation
Poses of the Feet and Lower Legs
Adding Arms and Motion
Plate 3
Plate 4
Plate 9
Adding Hands
Head, Eyes, Shoulders, Body
From Static Positions to Tracing Movement
Conclusions
Chapter 5. Teaching Social, Professional, and Gender Ethos
Austin and His Audiences
Status and the Culture of Politeness
Professional Status for Austin’s Audiences
Impoliteness
The Ideal Speaker
Women as Models for Public Oratory
Sarah Siddons (1755–1831): An Exceptional Appearance
Conclusions
Chapter 6. Beyond Chironomia: Movement as Actio
The Future of Notational Systems
What Is a Gesture?
Body Language and Ethos
Embodied Technology and Ethos
Conclusions
Gilbert Austin's "Chironomia" Revisited: Sympathy, Science, and the Representation of Movement
by Sara Newman and Sigrid Streit
Southern Illinois University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-0-8093-3767-5 eISBN: 978-0-8093-3768-2
This first book-length study of Irish educator, clergyman, and author Gilbert Austin as an elocutionary rhetor investigates how his work informs contemporary scholarship on delivery, rhetorical history and theory, and embodied communication. Authors Sara Newman and Sigrid Streit study Austin’s theoretical system, outlined in his 1806 book Chironomia; or A Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery—an innovative study of gestures as a viable, independent language—and consider how Austin’s efforts to incorporate movement and integrate texts and images intersect with present-day interdisciplinary studies of embodiment.
Austin did not simply categorize gesture mechanically, separating delivery from rhetoric and the discipline’s overall goals, but instead he provided a theoretical framework of written descriptions and illustrations that positions delivery as central to effective rhetoric and civic interactions. Balancing the variable physical elements of human interactions as well as the demands of communication, Austin’s system fortuitously anticipated contemporary inquiries into embodied and nonverbal communication. Enlightenment rhetoricians, scientists, and physicians relied on sympathy and its attendant vivacious and lively ideas to convey feelings and facts to their varied audiences. During the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries, as these disciplines formed increasingly distinct, specialized boundaries, they repurposed existing, shared communication conventions to new ends. While the emerging standards necessarily diverged, each was grounded in the subjective, embodied bedrock of the sympathetic, magical tradition.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sara Newman is an emeritus professor of English at Kent State University and the author of Writing Disability: A Critical History.
Sigrid Streit is an assistant professor of English and the director of writing across the curriculum at the University of Detroit Mercy. She has published research in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. This is her first book.
REVIEWS
“An erudite and wide-ranging study placing Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia within its historical context, showing how it fits within the developments in the art of oratory in Britain from the seventeenth century to Austin’s own day. The book brings out clearly Austin’s innovations. It is a valuable contribution to the history of rhetoric, and it shows the relevance of Austin’s work on gesture to contemporary issues in the emerging discipline of ‘gesture studies.’”—Adam Kendon, author of Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance
“This book is part history of rhetoric, part history of science, and a complete revision of Gilbert Austin’s work, a revision that foregrounds sympathy and movement as integral to bodily communication—and to communication writ large.”—Debra Hawhee, author of Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Table
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Austin and Elocution in Context
A Brief History of Delivery
The Scientific Method versus the Sympathetic Message
Sympathy Represents Science and Medicine Sympathy and Language Debated
Science and Sympathy
Rhetorical Sympathy Revisited
The Split
Chapter Outline and Conclusions
Chapter 2. Austin’s Scientific Publications in Context
A Brief History of Scientific Articles
The Air-Pump as an Example
Austin’s Scientific Publications
Summing Up Austin’s Scientific Papers
Chapter 3. Chironomia Revisited Chironomia’s Mission
Separate but Equal Languages
Voluntary and Involuntary Gestures
Taste, Vivacity, and Sympathy
Improper Movements and Failed Communication Conclusions
Chapter 4. Portraying Movement in Chironomia
Austin Acknowledges His Notational Challenges
Artistic Models of Actio
Music Notation
Dance Notation
Austin Introduces the Practical Half of Chironomia
The Foundation
Poses of the Feet and Lower Legs
Adding Arms and Motion
Plate 3
Plate 4
Plate 9
Adding Hands
Head, Eyes, Shoulders, Body
From Static Positions to Tracing Movement
Conclusions
Chapter 5. Teaching Social, Professional, and Gender Ethos
Austin and His Audiences
Status and the Culture of Politeness
Professional Status for Austin’s Audiences
Impoliteness
The Ideal Speaker
Women as Models for Public Oratory
Sarah Siddons (1755–1831): An Exceptional Appearance
Conclusions
Chapter 6. Beyond Chironomia: Movement as Actio
The Future of Notational Systems
What Is a Gesture?
Body Language and Ethos
Embodied Technology and Ethos
Conclusions
Notes
Works Cited
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC