Hidden Metaphors in Gesture, Sign, and Spoken Language: Haun Saussy

Hidden Metaphors in Gesture, Sign, and Spoken Language is a workshop presented by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society and the Center for Gesture, Sign and Language at the University of Chicago as part of a faculty project called, "The Body's Role in Thinking, Performing, and Referencing." The second speaker is Haun Saussy, university professor, Department of Comparative Literature and the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought.
About Haun Saussy
Professor Saussy joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2011. He received his B.A. (Greek and Comparative Literature) from Duke University and his M.Phil and Ph.D from Yale (Comparative Literature); between undergraduate and graduate schools, he studied linguistics and Chinese in Paris. He has previously taught at UCLA, Stanford, Yale, the City University of Hong Kong, and the Université de Paris-III. He was president (2009-2011) of the American Comparative Literature Association and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the University of Chicago Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society Classical Chinese poetry and commentary; literary theory; comparative study of oral traditions; problems of translation; pre-twentieth-century media history; ethnography and ethics of medical care.
About the Center for Gesture, Sign, and Language
Since the Renaissance, many scholars have overlooked the formative role our bodies play in shaping our minds, ignoring the influence that our movements have on our thinking and creative processes. But over the last several years, research in psychology, linguistics, and human development suggest that it is difficult to disentangle the workings of our minds from our physical sensations. This research is producing a new way of thinking about embodied cognition and changing how we think about learning and performing. This three-year project explores the relation between action, gesture, and sign language in order to develop a more nuanced and theoretically motivated understanding of how our bodies impact our minds and the minds of others. This project is core to the formative stage of a new Center for Gesture, Sign, and Language at the University of Chicago designed to provide a home for collaborations between members of the Departments of Psychology, Linguistics, and Comparative Human Development, and to catalyze new collaborations with scholars interested in the performing arts.
The workshop is organized by the Center for Gesture, Sign and Language with support from the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. For more information about the Neubauer Collegium visit: neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu.

[@tsykko]

Explanations of many artefacts e g the Chladni's soundfigures and many other thought provoking items are presented in a delightful way, also in sign language. Thank you!

[@olinsreflection8329]

This conversation presupposes that the mind and body are separate. These "corrections" or "limitations" that the mind provides can also be seen as disharmony between the body and mind rather than a perceptive correction - it can also be seen as a disharmonious perceptive error.
Perception sees it's own perceptive faculties as separate and subsequently limiting by default - this limitation is self imposed and disharmonious.