Literary Thesaurus of Nonverbal Communication

Poyatos, Fernando
Fernando Poyatos, professor emeritus of the University of New Brunswick, taught nonverbal communication in the departments of Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology. His publications include Paralanguage (1993), Nonverbal Communication Across Disciplines (2002, 3 vols.), Textual Translation and Live Translation (2008), Literary Anthropology (1988)

Following a substantial presentation of the author's well-known study of nonverbal communication, this unique Literary Thesaurus of nearly 5300 entries from different periods illustrates our multisensory, but intellectually evaluated, interpersonal experiences, as well as the manifestations of our environment and our reactions to it (bringing to life even long disappeared sounds, sights, smells and tactile experiences), besides our own nonverbal behaviors and nonbehaviors through which we exteriorize our thoughts and feelings. Besides the sensitive reader's esthetic enjoyment, researchers in various disciplines would often find confirmation of much of their own data on personal interactions and on how built or natural environment components impinge on our mental processes, feelings and emotional reactions and states of mind, including the functions of the many forms of ever present synesthesial perception and people's unconscious random behaviors. Besides, many of these deeply insightful literary texts are susceptible of different readings and applications, often illustrating more than one topic (e.g., light as an interaction component, the important function of silence a