Multimodal Literature 'Moves' Us: Dynamic Movement and Embodiment in VAS: An Opera in Flatland

Abstract

Multimodality is a recent academic development, fuelling a surge of related research (Kress/van Leeuwen 1996; 2001; Baldry/Thibault 2006; Royce/Bowcher 2007). In parallel to this, the turn of the millennium has seen an increase in the inclusion of typography, graphics and illustration in fiction yet, with only a few exceptions (Gibbons forthcoming a; forthcoming b), printed literature has often been neglected in multimodal study. Focusing on the ‘imagetext novel’ VAS: An Opera in Flatland, written by Steve Tomasula and designed by Stephen Farrell (2002), this paper explores multimodal printed literature through cognitive-poetic analysis. The examination of visual elements is aided by theories from visual perception and multimodal research. This cognitive and perceptual methodology is strengthened through reflection upon recent findings from neuroscientific work on embodiment. In consequence, this paper presents a fresh approach to multimodality, an approach which not only attends to all modes of meaning-making equally, as well as collaboratively, but one which considers the cognitive and embodied aspects of a multimodal literary experience.