Multimodal glances at multiple viewpoints

Visual artifacts often provide compelling points of comparison for textual viewpoint phenomena. Thus, for instance, novelist David Mitchell uses the image of a set of postcards which, when you put them end-to-end, form a continuous whole, as a model for the novel (qtd. Birnbaum 2006). From a cognitive perspective, however, we additionally expect a non-trivial share of cognitive processes involved to be shared across modalities (text, visual artifacts, gesture), as suggested, for instance, by striking similarities found in Janzen (2012) and Vandelanotte (2012) for multiple viewpoint management in ASL and narrative respectively. This paper proposes an approach which traces similar viewpoint phenomena in linguistic forms, gesture and visual artifacts. We will look at a variety of visual examples, including graffiti art by Banksy, modern art (Picasso, Hockney), traditional Chinese scrolls and Tokugawa Japanese maps, to better describe the ways in which patterns of viewpoint manipulation guide comprehension and open ways to interpretation. We will argue that these visual examples of viewpoint manipulation offer a new way of considering the emergence of multiple viewpoint constructions (such as free indirect discourse) in discourse (narrative, journalistic prose, etc.). We will also look at the interaction between verbal and gestural elements in oral storytelling. Considering such communicative events allows us to see how multiple viewpoints in discourse can be differently managed (and thus also observable) in contexts where co-speech gesture and the choice of linguistic forms are not strictly aligned in terms of whose viewpoint they represent. We argue that the emergence of meaning relies in important ways on manipulation of viewpoint in multimodal contexts. Whether we consider creative artifacts or everyday use of gesture and sign, correlations with linguistic forms highlight important ways in which discourse choices are made. These choices, we claim, are best analyzed in terms of networks of viewpoint.status: publishe