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Multimodal Creativity in the Murals of Northern Ireland

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Multimodal Creativity in the Murals of Northern Ireland UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS Programa de Doctorado en Filosofía y Ciencias del Lenguaje Mención Internacional PhD. DISSERTATION Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland Roberto Asenjo Alcalde Dirigido por / Supervised by: Dr. Manuela Romano Mozo y/and Dr. Augusto Soares da Silva March 2020 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland Roberto Asenjo Page 1 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland ―It´s not the bricks that are built on top of each other that divide our houses and divide our neighborhoods, it´s the bricks inside people´s heads. And in most cases those bricks are already crumbling down. As they fall, the walls that are built around us they´ll disappear themselves.‖ Danny Devenny. Northern Irish muralist. ―We don‘t see things as they are, we see them as we are.‖ Immanuel Kant. Philosopher. To my family. Thank you for your unconditional support. Roberto Asenjo Page 2 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland Abstract/Resumen In Northern Ireland, there was an intense political confrontation and an armed conflict between Catholic and Protestant communities from 1969 to 1998, a period called `The Troubles´. This difficult timeframe has been metaphorically portrayed through differents modes of representation in the murals of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. Since conceptual metaphors depend on embodiment or the physical experience of the environment, it is important to study to what extent contextual elements such as date, location and participants influence the creation and interpretation of blends or innovative metaphors that are inspired by conceptual metaphors based on three types of metaphorical schemas: propositional, image and event (Soares da Silva 2016). In this dissertation, an analysis of 100 murals is carried out by combining the most recent theoretical and methodological tools coming from socio-cognitive models of discourse analysis, namely, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Cuenca and Hilferty 1999; Charteris-Black 2004; Kövecses 2008, 2009, 2015; Semino 2008; Steen 2011 and Musolff 2004, 2015); Multimodal Metaphor Theory (Forceville and Urios-Aparisi 2009), and Blending Theory or Conceptual Integration Theory (Fauconnier and Turner 2002; Coulson and Oakley 2005; Oakley and Hougaard 2008; Dancygier 2012; Dancygier et al. 2012; Brandt and Brandt 2005). Moreover, this PhD thesis focuses on the study of the metaphorical way of thinking of each community through the identification, classification and analysis of target and source domains, metaphorical schemas and modes of representation used by the muralists in the compositions. The results extracted from the corpus under study prove that the creation and construal of metaphorical content in the murals of Northern Ireland depend on the physical experience of the environment where the blends arise. Keywords: conceptual metaphor theory, multimodal metaphor theory, blending theory, metaphorical schemas, modes of representation, discourse analysis, target domain, source domain. Roberto Asenjo Page 3 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland En Irlanda del Norte, hubo una intensa confrontación política y conflicto armado entre las comunidades Católica y Protestante desde 1969 hasta 1998, un periodo llamado `The Troubles´. Este complicado espacio temporal ha sido representado metafóricamente a través de diferentes modos de representación en los murales de Belfast y Derry/Londonderry. Puesto que las metáforas conceptuales dependen de la corporeización o experiencia física del medio, es importante estudiar hasta que punto elementos contextuales tales como la fecha, el lugar y los participantes influyen en la creación e interpretación de las mezclas o metáforas innovadoras, la cuales están inspiradas en metáforas conceptuales basadas en tres tipos de esquemas metafóricos: proposicional, imágen y evento (Soares da Silva 2016). En esta disertación, se ha llevado a cabo el análisis de 100 murales combinando las más recientes herramientas teorícas y metodológicas de los modelos socio-cognitivos de análisis de discurso, es decir, Teoría de la metáfora conceptual (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Cuenca and Hilferty 1999; Charteris-Black 2004; Kövecses 2008, 2009, 2015; Semino 2008; Steen 2011 and Musolff 2004, 2015), Teoría de la metáfora multimodal (Forceville and Urios-Aparisi 2009) y Teoría de la mezcla o de la integración conceptual (Fauconnier and Turner 2002; Coulson and Oakley 2005; Oakley and Hougaard 2008; Dancygier 2012; Dancygier et al. 2012; Brandt and Brandt 2005). Además, esta tesis doctoral se centra en el estudio del pensamiento metafórico de cada comunidad por medio de la identificación, clasificación y análisis de los dominios meta y fuente, los esquemas metafóricos y los modos de representación empleados por los muralistas en las composiciones. Los resultados extraidos del corpus estudiado prueban que la creación e interpretación del contenido metafórico de los murales de Irlanda del Norte dependen de la experiencia física del entorno donde las mezclas surgen. Palabras clave: teoría de la metáfora conceptual, teoría de la metáfora multimodal, teoría de la mezcla, esquemas metafóricos, modos de representación, análisis de discurso, dominio meta, dominio fuente. Roberto Asenjo Page 4 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland Acknowledgements/Agradecimientos First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Prof. Manuela Romano Mozo and my supervisor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa Braga, Prof. Augusto Soares da Silva, for their assistance and smart guidance. Specially, I will not forget their encouragement to finish this dissertation. Moreover, I would like to show my gratitude to my colleagues Miriam Sánchez Montilla and Maria Muelas Gil since I took their excellent Master´s Thesis: Approaching Domestic Violence from a Multimodal Perspective. A Multilingual Contrastive Study on Anti-Domestic Violence Campaigns and PhD Dissertation: Metaphor, economy and persuasion: A socio- cognitive approach to metaphor in times of elections, respectively as references to structure many parts of my dissertation as well as bibliographical references to understand concepts from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory. Besides, I am very grateful to Beatriz from the library of Teaching school and all my colleagues from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Also the library staff and colleagues from Universidade Católica Portuguesa made me feel at home during my stay in Braga, especially to Augusto Soares da Silva, Maitê Gil and Dafne Palu who helped me with statistics and the classification of the metaphors suggested in the murals. Additionally, I want to express my appreciation to Prof. Ana Margarida Abrantes from Universidade Católica Portuguesa Lisbon who showed me the innovative Brandt and Brandt´s perspectives on Blending Theory. Also I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Rachel Whittaker and Prof. Mick O´Donnell from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid since they kindly wrote recommendation letters when I needed them, Prof. Charles Forceville from Universiteit van Amsterdam for his useful advises and inspiring theories on multimodality, Prof. Tom Morton for his remarks about the metaphorical meaning of the murals and last but not least I want to express my gratitude to my landlord in Belfast, Sean Greene who took me in his car to visit the most interesting murals, Prof. Bill Rolston from Queen´s University of Roberto Asenjo Page 5 Multimodal creativity in the murals of Northern Ireland Belfast who helped me to understand many aspects of the murals and the Republican muralists Danny Devenny and Marty Lyons for their generosity and kindness. Primeramente, me gustaría agradecer la ayuda y los consejos de mi directora de tesis en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, la profesora Manuela Romano Mozo y de mi codirector en la Universidade Católica Portuguesa de Braga, el profesor Augusto Soares da Silva. Especialmente, no olvidaré el estímulo de los dos para que finalizara esta tesis. Además, me gustaría mostrar mi gratitud tanto a mi compañera Miriam Sánchez Montilla, autora de la excelente tesis de master titulada Aproximación a la violencia domestica desde una perspectiva multimodal. Un estudio contrastivo sobre las campañas en contra de la violencia doméstica, como a Maria Muelas Gil, autora de la sobresaliente tesis doctoral titulada Metáfora, Economía y Persuasión. Aproximación socio-cognitiva a la metáfora en tiempo de elecciones, pues ambos trabajos me sirvieron de referencia para estructurar muchas partes de mi disertación y me facilitaron bibliografía para comprender términos de la Teoría de la metáfora conceptual y la Teoría de integración conceptual. También estoy muy agradecido a Beatriz de la biblioteca de la facultad de Educación por ayudarme a buscar referencias bibliográficas y a mis compañeros de la UAM. Por otra parte, los bibliotecarios y compañeros de la Universidade Católica Portuguesa me hicieron sentir como en casa durante mi estancia en Braga, especialmente Augusto Soares da Silva, Maitê Gil y Dafne Palu que me ayudaron con la estadística y la clasificación de las metáforas sugeridas en los murals. Mas aún, quiero expresar mi aprecio a la profesora Ana Margarida Abrantes de la Universidade Católica Portuguesa de Lisboa que me mostró innovadoras perspectivas de Brandt y Brandt sobre la Teoria de la mezcla. Asi mismo, me gustaría expresar mi mas sincero
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