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Modality. Commitment, Truth Value and Reality Claims Across Modes in Multimodal Novels

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Modality. Commitment, Truth Value and Reality Claims Across Modes in Multimodal Novels 174 Abstracts 1 NINA NØRGAARD 2 3 Modality. 4 5 Commitment, Truth Value and Reality Claims Across Modes in 6 Multimodal Novels 7 8 This article presents exploratory work in the newly emerging field of multimodal 9 stylistics. By bringing together literary studies, linguistics and multimodal semiot- 10 ics, multimodal stylisticians aim to extend the stylistic tool box by developing 11 methodological frameworks applicable to the description and analysis of literary 12 texts which – in addition to wording – make use of other semiotic modes such 13 as typography, visual images, colour and layout for their meaning-making. The ap- 14 proach to multimodality deployed and examined is that proposed, for instance, by 15 Kress and van Leeuwen (e. g. 1996; 2001) and Baldry and Thibault (2006). Ac- 16 cording to Kress and van Leeuwen (2001, 2) »common semiotic principles operate 17 in and across different modes«. Following this line of thought, the article sets out to 18 examine modality as a cross-modal semiotic principle. 19 After a brief introduction to the field of multimodal stylistics, the concept of 20 modality is presented in its (Hallidayan) linguistic context as a verbal resource 21 for the expression of speaker commitment by means of modal verbs, adverbials, 22 modalised sentences and metaphorised modality. From here, the concept is trans- 23 ferred to the context of visual communication where it concerns the truth value of 24 the visual representation, described at a »lexico-grammatical« level in terms of the 25 visual modal parameters of articulation of detail, background, light, shadow, depth 26 and colour (Kress/van Leeuwen 1996). Subsequently, the concept of modality is 27 applied to the analysis of two explicitly multimodal novels, with particular focus 28 on the realisation of modality in visual images and typography. The texts put up 29 for analysis are Alexander Masters’ Stuart. A Life Backwards and Jonathan Safran 30 Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. While Kress and van Leeuwen’s 31 modal parameters prove to apply well to the analysis of modality at a lexico-gram- 32 matical level of the photographic images, analysis of the two novels reveals that mo- 33 dality also appears to be at play at a discourse level as a result of the multimodal 34 interplay of the verbal and the visual. The analysis of Masters’ and Foer’s sporadic 35 use of special typography, in turn, reveals that although some of Kress and van 36 Leeuwen’s modality parameters may be applicable to typography, the descriptive 37 system is clearly less adequate in a typographic context where further work is needed 38 before workable tools can be added to the multimodal stylistic tool kit. 39 40 41 42 Modality. Commitment, Truth Value and Reality Claims 79 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 References 32 33 Baldry, Anthony/Paul Thibault, Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis, London 2006. 34 Bateman, John A., Multimodality and Genre. A Foundation for the Systematic Analysis of Multi- 35 modal Documents, Hampshire/New York 2008. 36 Boeriis, Morten, A Mode Instantiation Model, in: Nina Nørgaard (ed.), Systemic Functional Linguistics in Use, Odense Working Papers in Language and Communication 29 (2008), 37 237–250. 38 Bordwell, David/Kristin Thompson, Film Art. An Introduction, New York 2008. 39 Foer, Jonathan Safran, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, London et al. 2005. 40 Gibbons, Alison, »I contain multitudes«: Narrative Multimodality and the Book that Bleeds, 41 in: Ruth Page (ed.), New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality, London 2010, 42 99–114. 80 Nina Nørgaard 1 Halliday, Michael, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, London/Sydney 1994. 2 Hodge, Robert/Gunther Kress, Social Semiotics, New York 1988. 3 Kress, Gunther/Theo van Leeuwen, Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design, London/ New York 1996. 4 –, Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, London 5 2001. 6 –, Colour as a Semiotic Mode. Notes for a Grammar of Colour, Visual Communication 1:3 7 (2002), 343–368. 8 Lupton, Ellen, Thinking with Type. A Critical Guide for Designers, Editors, & Students,New 9 York 2004. 10 Masters, Alexander, Stuart. A Life Backwards [2005], London/New York 2006. 11 McIntyre, Dan, Integrating Multimodal Analysis and the Stylistics of Drama. A Multimodal Perspective on Ian McKellen’s Richard III, Language and Literature 17:4 (2008), 309–334. 12 Nørgaard, Nina, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Literary Analysis. A Hallidayan Approach 13 to Joyce. A Joycean Approach to Halliday, Odense, Denmark 2003. 14 –, The Semiotics of Typography in Literary Texts.A Multimodal Approach, Orbis Litterarum 15 64:2 (2009), 141–160. 16 –, Multimodality and the Literary Text. Making Sense of Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and 17 Incredibly Close, in: Ruth Page (ed.), New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Lon- 18 don and New York 2010, 115–126. 19 –, Multimodality. Extending the Stylistic Tool Kit, in: Dan McIntyre/Beatrix Busse (eds), Language and Style, Houndmills, Basingstoke 2010, 433–448 (Nørgaard 2010b). 20 O’Halloran, Kay, Mathematical Discourse. Language, Symbolism and Visual Images, London/ 21 New York 2005. 22 Simpson, Paul, Language, Ideology and Point of View, London 1993. 23 Toolan, Michael, Language in Literature. An Introduction to Stylistics, London 1998. 24 Van Leeuwen, Theo, Speech, Music, Sound, London 1999. 25 –, Introducing Social Semiotics, London/New York 2005. 26 –, Typographic Meaning, Visual Communication 4:2 (2005), 137–143 (van Leeuwen 2005b). 27 –, Towards a Semiotics of Typography, Information Design Journal + Document Design 14:2 (2006), 139–155. 28 Wheatley, J., An Examination of Modality in the Opening Chapter of Silas Marner,in:J. 29 Payne (ed.), Linguistic Approaches to Literature. Papers in Literary Stylistics, Birmingham 30 1995, 45–57. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Full-length article in: JLT 4/1 (2010), 63-80. How to cite this item: Abstract of: Nina Nørgaard, Modality. Commitment, Truth Value and Reality Claims Across Modes in Multimodal Novels. In: JLTonline (15.11.2010) Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:de:0222-001354 Link: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0222-001354 .
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