Body Language in Augustine’s Confessions and De doctrina christiana
Résumé
This article examines the role of bodily expressions within AugustineÕs theory of signs and language. Philosophical reflection, rhetorical practice, and his own homiletical experience all led Augustine to consider the role played by the body in communicative acts. The investigation is sharpened via careful analysis of the rhetorical category of actio and close readings of particular passages that are relevant for AugustineÕs understanding of the process of learning language in general and of learning the catechism in particular. The centrality of bodily signs for the dramatization of the famous scene of AugustineÕs conversion in the Milanese garden is also discussed: here, voice and physiognomy express the tragedy of the will, even as body signs (taken as natural signs) prove crucial to AugustineÕs particular retelling of the story.