Rhythm in literary apps

Abstract

This article addresses how rhythm may function in literary apps. The article has two aims: increasing the knowledge of how literary apps work as texts, by exploring their aspects of rhythm, and developing the understanding of the theoretical term of rhythm. The authors propose a rhythmanalysis in which two different types of rhythm – reading rhythm and narrative rhythm – are taken into account. The two types of rhythm may both occur at different structural levels in the text. This approach is applied to the analysis of rhythm in the popular literary app, Florence (Wong et al., 2018, Florence Tablet application software), drawing on concepts from multimodal social semiotics (Van Leeuwen, Introducing Social Semiotics, 2005), although leaning towards a more reception-oriented approach than the traditional text-oriented analysis in social semiotics. Literary apps are defined in this context as multimodal fictional narratives that can lead to an aesthetic experience for the reader (Iser, 1984, Der Akt des Lesens); however, non-narrative apps, such as poetry, may also be defined as literary apps. These apps may be read on a tablet or a smartphone. This article elucidates some of the many facets of rhythm related to the multimodal design of a literary app, which invites different forms of interactivity than the linear reading and page-turning of print-based picture books. The findings of the analysis show how rhythm not only contributes to the multimodal cohesional aspects of literary apps, but is fundamental to the meaning potential of the literary app.

Meeting the Challenges of Designing Multimodal Texts to Promote Multiliteracies Pedagogy

“…Our analysis has evidenced how the design of multimodal texts aimed at promoting intercultural learning involves the representation of two main sets of meanings: ideational and interpersonal, found in participants, processes, circumstances, attitudes, and sources of attitudes (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004;Martin & Rose, 2007). Additionally, our results have shown that different modes, in our case, the verbal, aural, visual, and gestural modes, contribute to different layers of meaning according to their affordances (Hagen & Mills, 2022;Kress, 2010). The verbal and visual modes contribute the most towards intermodal meaning construction, playing fundamental roles in representing culture, geography, and biodiversity and aligning the reader and viewer with the character's very positive reactions towards such diversity.…”

“…Mobeybou in Brazil is, therefore, a multimodal ensemble in which meaning-making is necessarily a fully-fledged embodied process (Hagen & Mills, 2022;Mills, 2016). This aligns with Kress's (1997) claim that: all modes allow cognition, or cognition is possible, is realized, in all modes, although differently.…”

“…However, the authors argue that interaction with an intra-text interactive design is, on the contrary, an act of meaning-making within the narrative. Hagen and Mills (2022) explore how rhythm may function in literary apps based on the understanding that rhythm forms an important part of the reader's meaning-making in using literary apps. After an extensive analysis of a literary app, the authors argue that "rhythm not only contributes to the multimodal cohesional aspects of literary apps but is also fundamental to meaning-potential" (Hagen & Mills, 2022, p. 19).…”