مهلا دل زنده

In the present study we are to survey the representation of verbal violence in dramatic literature of Iran. We want to see the percentage of verbal violence in different groups and if this percentage is meaningful. To achieve this aim context of theater was chosen and we chose ten play scripts from five man writers and five woman writers accidently. The verbal violence in these plays was categorized into seven groups including violence from women toward men, violence from men toward women, violence from women toward women, violence from men toward men, violence toward animals, violence toward self, violence toward the universe and nondefinite things. Totally ۱۱۰۱ violent sentences were collected. The number of violent sentences and the number of speech turns were counted once totally and once in each group. After that according to the numbers, the percentage of each group was accounted. Then directness or indirectness, verbality, reactions, power, and gender of the writer was analyzed. To surveying these things we used different theories like zizek, culpeper, Short, and Weber’s. the statistics shown that the most usage of verbal violence in the seven groups was by the group “violence from men towards men” with percentage of ۳۴.۸۹ and the least usage of verbal violence was in the group “violence toward animals” with the percentage of ۰.۱۸. ۷۵.۹۳% of the verbal violence was direct and ۸۴.۰۹% of them were verbal. In ۲۱.۷۶% of the cases there were violent reactions. Surprisingly, ۷۶.۳۲% of the violence was happened between equal people not from a dominant power toward a weaker power. Eventually, the percentage of verbal violence used by women writers with figure of ۵۳.۳۱ was more than men writers. The results show that although apparently the usage of violence in men is more, in the underlying layers women show more violence and they express their suppressed feelings and desires in their works. Besides, the statistics in the unisex groups and their writers show that men and women don’t have enough knowledge about each other. As a result, the improvement of conversation skills and its training and practice can be effective in reducing violence at the society and help to have a more peaceful society.

Key words: verbal violence, dramatic literature, theater, violence, play, language, conversation, social linguistics