Nonverbal Elements in War Poems across Cultures: A Case Study of English and Croatian

Abstract

Building on extensive study on nonverbal communication, this paper focuses on the presence of culturally referenced representations of nonverbal behaviour in poetry, specifically looking at the presence of culturally referenced nonverbal elements in war poems written during and after World War I. Written representations of such nonverbal elements are seen either as vocal-nonverbal (paralanguage) or as nonvocal-nonverbal (kinesics). As a poem’s theme derives from the actual event(s), it can be expected to contain culturally bound nonverbal elements. Analysis shows that nonverbal elements are mostly represented via descriptions of spatial signs, body adaptors and bodily characteristics, and that the presence of culturally referenced nonverbal elements is almost non-existent.