Abstrakt
The AlliterativeMorteArthureand StanzaicMorteArthurnarrateviolent interactions and intense emotions that are predominantlyconveyed by means of kinesis. When a literary work refers tokinesis, i.e., gestures, movements, facial expressions, and physicalinteractions, readers tend to infer the kinaesthetic valence of suchinformation. The term kinaesthesia refers to the sense ofmovement.
More systematically than their medieval sources, thetwo Middle English poems emphasize the significance of kinesisand kinaesthesia. This article supports this claim by analysingkinesic tropes of emotions, and action verbs referring to detaileddynamic movements.
It also highlights the importance of kinesisin conceptions of identity and faciality, showing that facialgestures are more relevant in the two poems than facial features.