MANIFESTATIONS OF MULTIMODALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ANGLOPHONE ARTISTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

This article suggests the analysis of artistic forms as multimodal construals being formed in integration of verbal, visual, and auditory semiotic modes in contemporary Anglophone artistic discourse, namely the Eurovision 2021 Song Contest (Maneskin performance) and the animated movie The Croods: A New Age. Multimodality paradigm serves as a predominant theoretical and methodological framework of the research that itself testifies to the topicality of the study. The paper views multimodality as integration and combination of various modes in contemporary Anglophone artistic discourse. The aim of the article is to reveal ways and means of artistic forms construction, as well as their interaction in the discourse under scrutiny. Methods to analyze visual mode of the constructed forms represented by colors in Maneskin performance on the Eurovision stage include computer-assisted methods, namely a special software Image color summarizer. It suggests descriptive statistics for an image, determining the average color saturation and the most representative colors in the image. Further interpretation of the gained results is conducted by means of using thesauri of symbols and psychology, which foster inference of colors' symbolic senses. Then, the findings of the visual mode analysis are combined with the ones received due to componential, textual, interpretative, and stylistic analysis of the verbal mode applied in both case studies. In Maneskin performance verbal mode is represented by the song lyrics featuring metaphors and other stylistic means combined with three consecutive color stages each with its prevailing color scheme as a manifestation of the visual mode. On the one hand, the color images used in Maneskin performance complement and enhance the senses encoded in the verbal component. On the other hand, they restrict possible interpretations of it. Gradual interchange of dominant colors in combination with audio-visual, kinesthetic, and verbal images expresses the persona's implicit attitude towards the world, society, its rules and nature. The research findings show that multimodal forms constructed in the animated movie The Croods: A New Age are of paradoxical character. It is revealed in visual and verbal modes. For instance, colors of animals are unnatural, they do not coincide with the animals' natural colors in reality. The same can be stated about the characters' names and behavior. Interaction of visual, auditory, and verbal modes produces paradoxical worlds and characters.