Performance Criticism, Cognition, and Embodiment

A Dialog between Performance Criticism, Cognitive Linguistics, and Islands, Islanders, and Scripture

Papers given at SBL 2023 in San Antonio

The human body is a significant link between ancient and modern performances of biblical traditions. Across time and cultures, readers, lectors, and performers of biblical texts gesture and use other signals with eyes, face, hands, arms, and legs that audiences blend with the sounds they hear to make meaning. In this joint session co-sponsored by Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts, Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation, and the Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures, three invited papers will explore how the human body and embodied cognition may provide a basis for comparing ancient and modern performances.

Click on the links below to watch the presentations on Vimeo:

Peter S. Perry, A Performance Criticism Point of View on Performance and Embodiment

Beth Currier, A Cognitive Linguistics Point of View on Performance and Embodiment

Althea Spencer-Miller, An Islander Point of View on Performance and Embodiment