Sardonic smile
Subtitle: nonverbal behavior in Homeric epic
By: Donald Lateiner.
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
Subjects: Homer -- Knowledge -- Psychology; Body language in literature; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Social interaction in literature; Poetry -- Psychological aspects
Description: No previous work has thoroughly analyzed nonverbal behavior in Homeric epic. Gesture and posture, conscious and unconscious manipulation of space and time, and involuntary "leakage" such as twitching and shivering can intensify and underline - or contradict and ironize - the speech of characters and hexameter narrative.

Lateiner explores how the Homeric poems frequently and consistently employ gesture, posture, and vocalics to convey situation and meaning, sometimes instead of speech or instrumental action, sometimes in addition to those signals of meaning. Sardonic Smile has been written for a broad audience including classicists, cultural historians, anthropologists, semioticians, and students of comparative literature.

A general introduction to gesture in life and literature, translated Greek, and a glossary of terms make the volume accessible to student and scholar alike.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-309) and indexes.