Impoliteness in British and Lebanese comic anthologies

Despite the importance of the non-verbal aspect in the realisation and interpretation of impoliteness, studies that tackle impoliteness in its multimodal fullness are rather rare. This dissertation around the multimodal realisation of impoliteness in comics is an attempt to remedy this gap. It specifically explores the forms and functions of impoliteness in British and Lebanese comic anthologies, thereby also looking into potential country-specific practices and preferences. In doing so, it addresses a secondary aim of the research, which is to gauge the applicability of the adopted impoliteness model in a multimodal medium in two disparate contexts. Informed mainly by the integrative pragmatics approach and a cognitive-based multimodal approach to the study of comics, the study focuses on the inter-character interactions that may have elicited an evaluation of impoliteness among any of the participant-characters or readers/analysts. Similarities in the realisation of impoliteness in the two countries’ comics are noted, and differences and areas of interest are highlighted and examined through a cultural lens. A number of non-verbal features accompanying impoliteness behaviours are shown to occur with a frequency that suggests that they have become conventionalised for impoliteness and are an important part of the contexts that constitute impoliteness. Moreover, while serving as a source of affective release and creative entertainment, impoliteness in comics is also frequently revealed to be a resource for challenging and renegotiating the characters’ power dynamics and social identities. Lastly, the aptness of the adopted impoliteness model at guiding the analysis of impoliteness phenomena in a previously unexplored medium and context is substantiated.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Lancaster University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Authors dc:creator

• Mourad, Lina
• Culpeper, Jonathan