Mary Gibbons
Speaking Hands
In this paper I propose to take my earlier investigations, of the relationship between visual image and text in Christine’s oeuvre, and specifically the role hand gestures play in this context, a step further. This will involve an analysis and comparison of selective visual images in conjunction with comparable texts of works written by several male authors of the “long fourteenth century,” in the words Sarah Kay: the Ovide moralisee, de Meun’s Roman de la rose, works of Machaut, and Froissart. To what extent, if any, we might ask, do the visual narratives in these works support, diverge from, or even conflict with the texts? And if so, how? Are they similar or not to comparable examples in Christine’s work? Is there a universal language of gesture that characterizes the works of this “long fourteenth century?