Chapter 9. Gestural mimesis as “as-if” action

Abstract

It is argued that gestural mimesis involves “as-if” actions that explain the transition from practical and literal actions with the hands to communicative actions of the hands. Concerning the term and the concept “pantomime,” it is suggested that it be primarily reserved for artistic practice and used for this type of communicative action only with great care. Given the fundamental role of mimesis to gestures (hand-gestures as well as full body gestures), it is proposed that gestures in general be conceived of as “mimetic expressive movements” – no matter whether they are used in the presence or absence of spoken or signed language. In order to underline the continuity between gestures created on the spot and conventionalized gestural forms, It is suggested to use the term miming or mimesis no matter whether gestures replace or accompany language. The chapter offers an introduction to the theoretical motivations and illustrates the empirical and methodological implications of this proposal. It first sketches three key aspects of an approach to gestures as mimetic expressive movements, then shows that mimesis grounds gestures with different communicative functions, illustrating its emergent productivity along the dynamics of different types of discourse and briefly touches upon dynamics in terms of historical change and how this affects the kinesics and the meaning of gestures. Finally, it is briefly indicated how conceiving of gestures as mimetic expressive movements affects the methodology for gesture analysis.