Historicizing Multimodality: Medieval Meaning-Making in the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch

• Other Authors: Bearden, Logan (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: English literature; America > Literatures; Composition (Language arts)
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4712

This project seeks to complicate the ahistorical and binary-oriented treatment of multimodality in contemporary scholarship. I pose the questions: how does multimodality function within the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, an illuminated manuscript from the eleventh century, and what enlarged picture of literacy might we gain from such an examination? The answer, my analysis uncovers, is twofold: 1) in the Hexateuch, we see that modes cannot be separated; and 2) the blurring of the semiotic boundaries between modes also blurs the boundary between the Hexateuch and its audience, constituting an embodied literacy. From this analysis, I offer that we nuance our understanding of multimodality from a recent phenomenon to the interplay of interpenetrating literacy tools that are always already working together in any composition. In so doing, we open ourselves up to a more capacious and historical understanding of multimodality and of literacy. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. === Summer Semester, 2012. === June 11, 2012. === frame, imageword, Kress, multimodality === Includes bibliographical references. === Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Professor Directing Thesis; Elaine Treharne, Committee Member; Michael Neal, Committee Member; Kathleen Blake Yancey, Committee Member.