“I Showed Him an Open Hand, He Showed me a Fist”

Iconicity, Ostension, and Cross-Modal Integration in a Yiddish Folktale

Abstract

This article analyzes the gestural dimensions of a performance of the folktale known as “The Pope’s Three Questions” (Alexander-Frizer 2007). This tale is an apt candidate for close attention to gesture, as gesture is thematically central to its plot. It is part of a widely distributed international tale complex. The tales in this complex have in common a plot element in which a person of low social status must submit to a test consisting of three enigmatic, apparently opaque questions posed by a powerful figure, the successful outcome of which turns on differential understandings of the questions, the aptness of the responses, or both. These questions are posed in gestural form. The article presents a semiotically informed multimodal analysis of the interplay between the verbal and gestural constituents of the tale as performed. Ostension plays a key role in the semiotic organization of the tale.

Keywords: Folktales; storytelling; gesture; ostension; performance