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Non-verbal communications could be a part of visual signs that, because of their importance in interpersonal relationships and transition of meaning, are highly regarded by psychologists and sociologists. One of the major subdivisions of this topic is called "Body Language" that has existed in all human societies since ancient times. These non-verbal signs, some thousands of years old, have cultural and rhetorical functions, with common and sometimes conflicting aspects, in the cultures and social traditions of different tribes. The more ancient and comprehensive the literary context of a piece of research is, the more valuable that analysis in explaining the cultural, social, and even aesthetic aspects of texts will be. Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, as a representative of Iranian culture and thought in prehistoric age up until the Islamic era, can be the best representation of metalingual communicative performance in Iranian cultural history. Due to the prototypic nature of characters in Shahnameh, many of their non-verbal signs can also be considered the archetypal source of the behavioral interactions or body language of the Iranian people when in the context of epic their national and social identities as Iranians are formed. In this article, attempts has been made to decode these obscure and complex cultural concepts by exploring the "body language" in non-linguistic acts of main characters in Shahnameh. The results of this research demonstrate that the body language of characters in Shahnameh is not accidental but totally conscious. Indeed, the purpose has been to draw the attention of the readers to rethink the patterns of individual and social behavior of Iranian and non-Iranian ethnicities so to recognize the cultural identity mainly through irony and symbolism.

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Communication includes all the ways that human beings can influence others. This involves not only speaking or writing, but also all human behavior in various ways, so there are two types of communicational signs that human beings use: verbal and non-verbal signs. In communication science, special attention has been paid to how non-verbal signs influence message transmission. The research has shown that a large proportion of messages are transmitted to others through non-verbal signs. In poetry, the poet uses both verbal and nonverbal signs to be more effective in relation to the audience, but often in the analysis of poetry, the focus is on the verbal signs. Mehdi Akhavan-Sales is one of the most remarkable poets of contemporary narrative poetry whose specific characteristic of his poetry makes it suitable to use the non-verbal signs. In this study, the use of non-verbal communicational signs has been discussed to answer the following questions: Which non-verbal signs did Mehdi Akhavan-Sales use in his poetic images? What induces non-verbal signs in his poetry? Is there a significant relationship between the signs of non-verbal communication and the dominant thought of Akhavan in his poems? This study shows that Akhavan transmitted some of the concepts and messages in his poetry by depicting non-verbal signs related to the eyes, hands, feet, head and neck, lips, mouths, etc. The frequency of using these signs is higher in poems that have narrative features. The messages conveyed by these signs are often sadness, fear, concern, anxiety, uncertainty, and despondency. The high frequency of false smiles and the frequent use of phonetic messages of silence indicate that duplicity, and improbity made his poetic atmosphere full of despair. The use of these signs shows that instead of explaining a feeling or trying to convey a message, he presents an effective poem to the audience in a succinct manner.