Abstract

ATIENZA, Alicia María. Servile proxemics: non-verbal behavior of servants in the Odyssey. Circe clás. mod. [online]. 2004, n.9, pp.33-54. ISSN 1851-1724.

Body language and-non verbal behaviours are important to define social stratification in the complex world of the Odyssey. Non-verbal channels become really significant in the representation of dependent groups that can't speak otherwise because of their social inferiority (Thalmann 1998). We priorized in this paper the categories of Lateiner (1995: 10-5) that we judge to be most important in the representation of servants, such as the social manipulation of space (proxemic) and instrumental acts related with thematic patterns and typical formulas of oral composition. We also analyzed the constant association of servants with objects and tools and their silencing as procedures of reification in the ideological representation of the poem.

Keywords : Odyssey; Proxemic; Non verbal behavior; Servants.