Reading Five: Question 1

"What does the work of Austin and Delsarte suggest about the relationship between the body, the mind, and the spirit? About the relationship between science, art, and religion?"

The main similarity between the two is that each presented the body as the image-maker of the mind, and they were the foremost to articulate this process and have methodoolgoies to exploit the process. To best understand what Austin and Delsarte suggested about the relationshiop between the body, mind, and spirit, one must observe their techniques and contributions separately. Whereas both viewed the body as the main concern of "body" of speaker, actor, or reciter, they viewed the "body of the performer" from radically different perspectives drawn from their philosophical and religious backgrounds. For these orators, performance was a complex psycholgocial process centered on the spirti's expression in flesh, and the ability of the body to communicate the mind's deepest working. Such semiotics suggests that the body and the mind exist in duality, with the body being the physical manifestation of the mind's thoughts. The relationship to spirit is exemplified as these manueverings as the artistic spirit's expression in flesh.

In his work "Chironomia," (which refers to gestures) Austin reflected to fascinated observation of the scientific age of that time period. His work attempted not only to re-emphasize the significance of rhetoric but also to present a scientific language to speech. The body, then, in contrast to language, could be taught to outwardly show the desires of the mind. To acheive this, Austin focused on the gesture being insinuated into the mind. Public discourse in this fashion became a social contract in which the management of the voice and the gesture of the head and body were all intertwined. In regards to the relationship between body and mind, Austin noted that a chief aim of oratory is to persuade, and through gesture is persuasion completed.

I feel that part of this persuasion stems from the speaker's credibility they derive while speaking. Take for example a preacher who stands in a large, confident stance on the pulpit as he delivers his sermon, using grandiose gestures to help drive his point home, as opposed to a man who stands behind the podium and offers a more humble, straightforward approach to delivering his rhetoric. Wouldn't one leave more of an impression and draw more charisma than the other?

Delsarte arguably did more to show a degree between the spiritual significance of tone and countenance. Whereas Austin's excellence was seen in observations by others, Delsarte was more concernced with excellence in expression as the celebration of the divine and a fulfillment through the body of God's grace. The Christian vision provides the foundation for the performance system. True education to him is spiritual made possible through strenuous practice. Delsarte's interpreation can be understood through analysizing some of his seven steps to education. Of note are the body, which acts as the organism, having the life of sensation, the action of the five senses. The soul is housed in this body, which is subject to the sensations of the world. Through this system, the body and mind are liberated by soul. This idea in practice seems to follow more Buddhist principles.

Understanding the relationship between science, art, and religion is understanding Austin's focus on the rhetor as the creator of a "microcosm" of meaning for listeners and Delsarte's vision that man does not hold the center for all, but the speaker is a mediator whose salvation is incarnating the spirit in the flesh.