Proxemics and Identity in “A Beautiful Mind”

Abstract

The paper aims at correlating identity with proxemics regarding the main character of the film A Beautiful Mind, namely John Nash. The film focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. Therefore, the analyzed data comprise extracts and several pictures from the movie representative of the human use of space. There is presented a theoretical background of proxemics and place/space is looked at as a topic and location for discourse, also exemplifying E.T. Hall’s distance diagram. The analytical framework includes a semiotic approach added to the conversational analysis and discursive psychology. The conclusions of the paper sum up the identities of the main characters that resulted from the conversational turns and the human use of space.