Full Description
A distinguished cast of scholars discusses models of gesture and non-verbal communication as they apply to Greek and Roman culture, literature and art. Topics include dress and costume in the Homeric poems; the importance of looking, eye-contact, and face-to-face orientation in Greek society; the construction of facial expression in Greek and Roman epic; the significance of gesture and body language in the visual meaning of ancient sculpture; the evidence for gesture and performance style in the texts of ancient drama; the erotic significance of feet and footprints; and the role of gesture in Roman law. The volume seeks to apply a sense of history as well as of theory in interpreting non-verbal communication. It looks both at the cross-cultural and at the culturally specific in its treatment of this important but long-neglected aspect of Classical Studies.
Contents
D. L. Cairns (Edinburgh), 'Introduction'; D. L. Cairns (Edinburgh), 'Bullish looks and sidelong glances: social interaction and the gaze in Greek antiquity'; F. Cairns (Florida), 'Lavinia's blush'; M. Clarke (Maynooth), 'On the semantics of ancient Greek smiles'; A. Corbeill (Kansas), 'Gesture in early Roman law: empty forms or essential formalities?'; G. M. Davies (Edinburgh), 'On being seated: gesture and body language in Hellenistic and Roman art'; D. B. Levine (Arkansas), 'Eraton Bama (her lovely footsteps): the erotics of feet in ancient Greece'; L. Llewellyn-Jones (Edinburgh), 'Body language and the female role player in Greek tragedy and Japanese Kabuki theatre'; C. Panayotakis (Glasgow), 'Nonverbal behaviour on the Roman comic stage'; I. Papadopoulou (Komotini), 'Sardanapallus' gesture'; H. van Wees (UCL), 'Clothes, class, and gender in Homer'.
