Analysis of Nonverbal Communication Functions in Shamlu’s Poetry

Abstract

Nonverbal communication, or body language, is one of the essential tools that any discourse consciously or unconsciously utilizes to construct its visual messages. In poetry and literary texts, due to the inherent limitations in fully, accurately, and flawlessly conveying the poet’s embedded concepts and emotions—caused by constraints such as meter and rhyme, lexical deficiencies, and the lack of appropriate conceptual equivalents, particularly for expressing emotions such as anger, fear, joy, and sorrow—the poet is compelled to use another language known as body language or nonverbal communication. This form of communication often proves to be more truthful and expressive than verbal language and oral expression. This study, emphasizing the significance of nonverbal communication in literary texts, aims to provide a practical model for analyzing the functions of nonverbal communication in Shamlu’s poetry. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the study examines, extracts, and reports these functions. The findings indicate that although all six functions of nonverbal communication are present in Shamlu’s poetry—sometimes reinforcing and complementing meanings and at other times contradicting verbal communication—the substitutive and conflicting functions are more prominently manifested.