Don Quijote, humor y gestos

The present article is about a method of analysis of gestures and movements in literature called kinesic analysis. Its purpose is to develop ways of accounting for a type of humour elicited by narrated corporeal dynamics in interaction, as perceived in the cognitive act of reading literature. When centuries and multiple cultural variations separate corporeal experiences, how does literature enable us to grasp the dynamic sensations narrated by authors to the point of making us laugh? Beyond the undeniable historical divide that calls for the greatest caution, are there shared aspects that allow us to understand the type of embodied experience that an author such as Cervantes conveys through the movements of his writing? In a perspective that is both narratological and cognitive, this article provides an approach that takes into account the cognitive process called perceptual simulation, paying a particular attention to the sensorimotor aspect of tonicity