A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of The Dramatic Performance Of War Horse

With the change of communication methods,dynamic discourse has been more widely used in people`s life.It contains many kinds of symbol resources such as image,sound and color.Multimodal discourse analysis(MDA)provides an effective theoretical basis and research method for dynamic discourse analysis,which has attracted more and more attention.The stage play-War Horse,as a typical dynamic multimodal discourse,successfully demonstrates the charm of dramatic performance to the world.However,there are few studies combining multimodal discourse analysis with dramatic discourse.Based on Kress and van Leeuwen`s visual grammar,van Leeuwen`s auditory grammar,and Zhang Delu`s multimodal relationship theory,this thesis makes a multimodal discourse analysis of the dramatic performance of War Horse.This study attempts to answer the following questions:(1)How does the visual mode construct the dramatic meaning in the dramatic performance of War Horse?(2)How does the auditory mode construct the dramatic meaning in the dramatic performance of War Horse?(3)What are the complementary relationships between the two modes in constructing the complete meaning of the dramatic performance of War Horse?In this thesis,with the help of KM Player and Sonic Visualiser software,the symbol resources of visual mode and auditory mode of War Horse are analyzed,and the relationship between the two modes is also discussed.Through research and analysis,the main findings are:First of all,concerning the visual mode,the representational meaning,the interactive meaning and the compositional meaning have outstanding characteristics in War Horse.In the aspect of representational meaning,narrative processes and conceptual processes jointly construct the thematic meaning of War Horse,that is,condemning the cruelty of human war and praising the beauty of humanity.With regard to the interactive meaning,contact and high modality work together to establish an interactive relationship with the audience.As a stage play,War Horse uses offer acts to present the performance of the plot to the audience,but the play also uses a large number of demand acts to mobilize the audience’s mood;in addition,a high degree of modality makes the dramatic performance of War Horse have such a strong sense of reality that it achieves an immersive effect to the audience.Among them,color,contextualization and representation are particularly prominent in the modal markers involved in War Horse.In the fulfillment of the compositional meaning,the important information is placed in the center of the stage;the cruelty of the war is highlighted through color contrast,relative size and the position of the role in the foreground or background;the unconnected framing in the stage design reflects the cruelty of the war and the courage of the soldiers,etc.Secondly,the auditory mode in War Horse realizes meaning construction mainly from three aspects: perspective,melody and sound quality.In terms of perspective,social distance and figure work together.When describing the scene before the war,the sounds of paintings and bees are in a relatively close social distance with the audience,and the detailed puppet horse’s sounds are positioned as figure,making the audience seem to be in a harmonious and beautiful atmosphere with the pony as a companion;when describing the scene of the war,the sound of the shell,the charge horn,the neighing of a war horse and other sounds are relatively far away from the audience’s social distance,and the sound of general`s command is positioned as figure,making the audience deeply experience the threat of war at hand;music plays a role of connecting scenes.For melody,the melody of background sound can remind the audience of the scene of stage performance,urgency or peace;in addition,the audience can feel the harmonious and happy life before the war and the chaos and cruelty on the battlefield through different pitch movement,pitch range,pitch level and melodic articulation.In terms of sound quality,the multi-dimensional sound quality presented in the dramatic performance further enhances the audience’s sense of presence.Finally,the artistic appeal of War Horse is achieved by the highly complementary symbol resources of visual and auditory modes.Color,background and details complement each other with the melody.High-pitched music with bright colors shows a harmonious life,low music with dark colors shows a cruel war.The screen is a unique visual symbol resource in War Horse,which has prominent,primary and secondary,and supplemental relations with the auditory mode;the horse’s sound is very unique in this dramatic play,and its relationship with the visual mode is mainly non-reinforcement,including the coordination relation,the coalition relation and the intersection relation.In short,this thesis attempts to analyze the various symbolic resources of various modes in the dramatic play of War Horse,which is a significant try.