What is kinesthesia (kinesthetic imagery)?

From the name, you can tell that kinesthesia is associated with motion. Let’s take a look at its definition.

The definition of kinesthesia (kinesthetic imagery)

Kinesthetic imagery is a type of imagery that is used as a poetic device. Writers use kinesthesia to describe physical movements; kinesthesia allows writers to give readers the feeling of such movements.

The importance of kinesthesia

Through kinesthesia, writers can capture and detail significant yet small movements of natural things or human beings in their work. It is through kinesthesia that writers describe the movements during breathing, the pulse of a character, and more. This is especially when the characters are in tough or even calm situations. It makes the narrative world more vivid to the reader, creating comprehension in the reader.

Classification of kinesthesia

Kinesthesia can be divided into different categories, depending on the type of movement and its source. Examples of the categories of kinesthesia are:

Physical movement: In this category, kinesthetic imagery is used to give a feeling of involvement in an activity. For example, rolling in the grass.

Feelings: This is the type of kinesthetic imagery in which a writer describes the internal bodily human feelings (and their associated movements) such as anger, panic, sadness, calmness, and more.

Temperature: This type of kinesthesia involves descriptions of the feeling of temperature when a character is exposed to specific stimuli. The stimuli may be the sun, fire, ice, any other stimuli.

Touch: This type of kinesthesia gives the reader the feeling of touch caused by movement. For example, when one runs their fingers over cotton or woolen cloth.

Examples of the use of kinesthesia in literature

“With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman abandonment of consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the carriage dashed through streets and swept round corners, with women screaming before it, and men clutching each other and clutching children out of its way. At last, swooping at a street corner by a fountain, one of its wheels came to a sickening jolt, and there was a loud city from a number of voices, and the horses reared and plunged ...” (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)

In this piece from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses kinesthesia to describe the movements of the carriage in the streets, and the physical actions of the women and children in the scene.

“This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit, To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside in thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice ...” (Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare)

Shakespeare uses the phrases “warm motion” and “clod” as kinesthetic imagery.

“Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay;

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

(Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth)

William Wordsworth uses kinesthetic imagery to describe the movement of daffodils, explaining how they grow and their physical movement.

Examples of the use of kinesthesia in sentences

Flipping the pages

The beating of the heart

Batting her eyelashes

Flickering lights

Twinkling lights

Tossing away the pillow

Water lapping on the beach

Galloping horses

Nibbling

Chewing

Nipping

Nicking

Fidgeting fingers

Shrugging

Retreating steps

 

Sources

oakwords.com/kinesthetic-imagery-literary-examples/

https://literarydevices.net/kinesthesia