Multimodal Legitimation

Rowan R. Mackay is Assistant Professor of English at the Chinese University, Hong Kong. Working at the crossroads of political language, social semiotics, and identity politics, previous publications have analysed the politics of Scotland, gender debates and how they can be analysed sensitively, and the role of irony within senior management teams.

Contents

List of figures

Formal acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

1. LEGITIMATION AND MULTIMODALITY IN DISCOURSE: KEY FIGURES AND CONCEPTS

Aristotle

Bourdieu

Foucault

Latour

Orwell and Chomsky

Critical Discourse Analysis ~ Critical Discourse Studies

Van Dijk

Van Leeuwen

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Introduction

Analytical Gap

Blending Theoretical Approaches

Theoretical Framework

Key Notions and Terms

3: LEGITIMATION

Introduction

Rationality

Rationality and Legitimation

Dichotomies and Dualisms

Irrationality

Irrationality and Legitimation

Legitimating the Irrational

Rationality and Legitimation in Romanticism

Rationality and Legitimation in Modernism

Mythology and Legitimation

Technology and Legitimation

4: LEGITIMATION, MODE, GENRE, AND CONTEXT: THE COMPLEXITY OF THE POLITICAL AD

The Transferability of the Arts

Dada and Surrealism: Their Politics and Paradoxical Legacy

The Russian Avant-Garde, Eisenstein and Soviet cinema

Adorno, Eisler, and the De-legitimation of Mass Cultural Products

Inverted Modal Salience and Music

Introduction

Genre of Political Ads

Legitimation by the Multimodal Affordances of a Speech

‘Yes We Can’ (2008)

Multimodal Re-contextualisation in a Supporting Role

Legitimation through Genres

Background

‘Don’t Vote Alone’ (2008)

Legitimation through Multimodally Realised Genre and Register

Legitimation and Semiotic Simultaneity

Background

‘Don’t Know Much’ (2008)

Legitimation through Semiotic Simultaneity

Conclusion

5: NATURALLY

Introduction

Persuasion, Naturalisation, and Bourdieu

The Expedience of Uncertainty

‘Daisy’ (1964): Emotional Advertising

Unmodern Resonances

Children in/as Nature

Children and Politicians

Children and Innocence

‘Icecream’ (1964): Protecting Childhood

‘Dangerous World’ (2000), ‘Changing World’ (2004), and ‘Ashley’s Story’ (2004): Childhood Threatened

Deciphering the Body

Child as Savage

‘Poverty’ (1964), ‘The Threat’ (1996): Childhood Changed

Metaphorical Nature

‘Victory’ (2004)

Metaphor and Multimodality

‘Bear’ (1984)

‘Wolves’ (2004)

‘Polar Bears’ (2008) and ‘Wolves (II)’ (2008)

Nature as Environment

‘Orbiting’ (1984)

‘National Parks’ (1956)

‘Harbor’ (1988) and ‘Bay’ (1988)

‘Matters’ (2000)

Theoretical Framework Applied

‘The Threat’ (1996), Dole

‘Matters’ (2000), Gore

Typology

6: SELLING SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE

Introduction

‘Two Futures’ (2013)

Legitimation and National Identity

Analysis

Multimodal Resources

Pragma-strategic Level

Justificatory Schema

Legitimation as a Process

Legitimation as a Quality

Discourse-Historical Moral Evaluation

7. LEGITIMATION IN OTHER DISCIPLINES AND CONTEXTS

Cartography

Communication with Hazard Maps in Central America

Organization and Management Studies

The Law

Critical Legal Studies

The Heat of Passion Doctrine

‘Adequate Provocation’ and the ‘Reasonable Man’

Fear, Anger, and Agency

Incitation

Ad: ‘Willie Horton’, Hate as strategy

Literature

‘Measure for Measure’: Legitimation and the Law

Literature = Legitimate?

Art

Art and Value

Art and the Body

8. TRUTH AND LEGITIMATION

Truth and Expertise

Truth, Truths, and Lies

Free Speech, ‘Safe Spaces’, Algorithms and Echo Chambers

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