Alternative modalities – A Review of Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy

Aaron Scott Humphrey

doi:10.5334/cg.am

Abstract

Research exploring the multimodal characteristics of comics has recently flourished, and Dale Jacobs has been one of the early prolific authors on this topic. Jacobs expands these ideas further in Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy , a monograph which engages with theories of multimodality, but shifts its focus primarily to literacy sponsorship.

Highlights

The past decade has seen the concept of multimodal literacies increasingly embraced by both educators and comics scholars
The National Council of Teachers of English issued a Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies in 2005, which addresses issues related to electronic resources, and notes that an exclusive emphasis on digital literacies ‘would limit students’ access to other modes of expression,’ and highlights that the ‘interplay of meaning-making systems’ is not exclusive to electronic media (NCTE 2005)
Dale Jacobs has been one of the early prolific authors on this topic, publishing three articles about comics and multimodality between 2007 and 2008 (Jacobs 2007; Jacobs 2007a; Jacobs 2008). He expands these ideas further in Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy (Jacobs 2013) Figure 1, a monograph which engages with theories of multimodality, but shifts its focus primarily to literacy sponsorship

Summary

Introduction

The past decade has seen the concept of multimodal literacies increasingly embraced by both educators and comics scholars. He expands these ideas further in Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy (Jacobs 2013) Figure 1, a monograph which engages with theories of multimodality, but shifts its focus primarily to literacy sponsorship. Jacobs draws a distinction between traditional, text-based, ‘alphabetic’ literacy, and the more multifaceted, multimodal literacy sponsored in comic books.

Results

Conclusion