Towards “Strong” Multimodality: How Graphic Novels Can Help Us Rethink Modes
本文以游戏为理论视角，探讨如何利用图像小说融合文字与图像，推动组织研究从“弱”多模态转向“强”多模态，并识别出三种可用于研究具身与情感体验、情境化与理论化的功能。
Prior literature has highlighted the multimodal nature of organizations and organizing. However, management and organization studies continue to be guided by institutionalized conventions that prioritize words over other modes. This overreliance on words has resulted in “weak” multimodality that treats modes sequentially and often favors one mode over others. In this essay, we use play as a theoretical lens to explore how researchers can use the graphic novel to blend modes to extend “strong” multimodality. By focusing on the liminality of words and images in graphic novels, we make two critical contributions to multimodal research. First, we identify three graphic novels’ affordances researchers can use in MOS to attend to embodied and affective experiences ( eroticize), contextualize when one mode is insufficient ( narrativize), and demonstrate new ways of inquiry ( theorize). Second, we elucidate how these affordances emerge from the researcher's playful engagement with modes to explore how they might work together.