When a gesture was expected : a selection of examples from archaic and classical Greek literature / Alan L. Boegehold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boegehold, Alan L. (Alan Lindley), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Body language in literature.

Gesture in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (196 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1999]

Summary:

A boldly innovative study of nonverbal communication in the poetry and prose of Hellenic antiquityWhen a Gesture Was Expected encourages a deeper appreciation of ancient Greek poetry and prose by showing where a nod of the head or a wave of the hand can complete meaning in epic poetry and in tragedy, comedy, oratory, and in works of history and philosophy. All these works anticipated performing readers, and, as a result, they included prompts, places where a gesture could complete a sentence or amplify or comment on the written words. In this radical and highly accessible book, Alan Boegehold urges all readers to supplement the traditional avenues of classical philology with an awareness of the uses of nonverbal communication in Hellenic antiquity. This additional resource helps to explain some persistently confusing syntaxes and to make translations more accurate. It also imparts a living breath to these immortal texts.Where part of a work appears to be missing, or the syntax is irregular, or the words seem contradictory or perverse—without evidence of copyists' errors or physical damage—an ancient author may have been assuming that a performing reader would make the necessary clarifying gesture. Boegehold offers analyses of many such instances in selected passages ranging from Homer to Aeschylus to Plato. He also presents a review of sources of information about such gestures in antiquity as well as thirty illustrations, some documenting millennia-long continuities in nonverbal communication.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

One. Nonverbal Communication

Circumstantial Notices in Literature

Illustrations

Continuities

Generally Understandable

Mostly Greek

Summary

Two. Some Attic Red-Figure Scenes

The Vote on the Arms of Achilles

Sociabilities

Come Here

Photographs

Three. Homer

Demonstrative: Homer Iliad 16.844

"Incomplete" Conditional Sentence

Aposiopesis

Gesture for Apodosis

Gesture for Protasis

Four. Archaic Poets

Archilochus

Pindar

Five. Tragedy

Aeschylus

Sophocles

Euripides

Six. Aristophanes

Quotation and Parody

Continuities: Curses!

Seven. Orators

Forensic Oratory

Deliberative or Display Oratory

Alcidamas

Antiphon

Andocides

Lysias

Demosthenes

Lycurgus

The Law Code of Gortyn

Eight. Historians

Herodotus

Thucydides

Xenophon

Nine. Plato

Plato's Characters in Action

Conclusion

Bibliography

Art Index

Index Locorum

General Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-691-25252-1

OCLC:

1348488920