When the body speaks Paraverbal and nonverbal communication in La Comédie humaine

This article examines body language in romanesque communication in Balzac, of the verbal as well as paraverbal and nonverbal varieties. The aim is to analyze this language from a multisemiotic perspective—body language can be in discordance or concordance with verbal language—, but also from a social perspective—the body, linked to hexis and the class of characters, is both an instrument and a social revealer. Whether controlled or signaling in spite of itself, the body speaks.