Textual Implications in Redefinition of Verbal Violence in Hafez’s Divan

Verbal violence refers to any speech in which the speaker antagonistically exploits specific words and phrases to control, humiliate, coerce, threaten, ridicule, and quip his/her audience. Also, it refers to promiscuity in the speaker’s discourse. Social critics’ verbal system largely has an aggressive structure. As a social critic, Hafiz reflected his critique in his divan. Thus, his work can be a fresh, intersecting, social arena to examine verbal violence in his critical and individual encounter with a dominant ideological system. The current study will initially survey various definitions of violence. Then, it will define violence in the contemporary world. Afterward, it will concentrate on the violence within Hafiz’s divan. It will demonstrate that violence in Hafiz’s poetry is divided into verbal and nonverbal violence. The former has two categories: implicit and explicit. Given the implicit violence, it is the product of the poet’s imagination.  Lastly, the current article will study ‘inversion’ in the divan. The study results highlight the different degrees and types of verbal violence in Hafiz’s poetry when one pays attention to the implications of violence and its subject and addressees. Furthermore, findings indicate that Hafiz directly or indirectly employs vulgar and sarcastic expressions and descriptions in his relation to others at individual and social levels. Indeed, Hafiz’s verbal violence can create in his addressees a sense of abandonment, frustration, sorrow, and humiliation. Given the modern definitions of violence, one can classify with literary works containing high frequency of violence