On 24 October 2024 at 10:15 am, Professor Charles Forceville from the University of Amsterdam will give a plenary lecture On developing Multimodal Metaphor Theory into Multimodal Trope Theory at the International Conference Beyond Words: Persuasive Narratives and Multimodal Discourse (Auditorium of Jonas Jablonskis, Building No 4, Muitinės Str. 14, Kaunas).
Charles Forceville is a prominent scholar in multimodal communication and cognitive linguistics, currently serving as an associate professor in Media Studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. His academic journey began with English studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, followed by teaching in the fields of literature and Word & Image. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leiden, he focused on broadening his research on visual and multimodal metaphors.
Forceville has made significant contributions to understanding how metaphors function not only in language but also in visual and multimodal contexts, such as advertising, comics, and film. He is particularly known for his work on pictorial metaphors in advertising, later expanding into multimodal metaphors, exploring how different modes (visuals, text, sound) work together in meaning-making. His research has been published widely, including edited volumes like Multimodal Metaphor (2009), Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres (2017), Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle (2020).
In addition to his research, Forceville has held numerous visiting professorships, including at Lund University and Universidad Autónoma Madrid. He is currently advancing his research on relevance theory, narrative across media, and multimodal rhetoric. Forceville's scholarship aims to bridge the gap between the humanities and social sciences, demonstrating how cognitive theories can be applied to the analysis of art, popular culture, and media.
His expertise includes multimodal rhetoric, documentary film, animation, comics, and narrative theory, and his work provides both theoretical insights and practical applications for scholars and practitioners alike.
The conference is organised by the research group "Multimodality in Public Discourse" of Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty. We invite you to attend the lecture. More information about the conference can found here.
Professor Forceville will be staying longer at the Kaunas Faculty. We invite you to attend his lecture series from 23–30 October. The lectures will be held in English in the Jonas Jablonskis Auditorium, but you can also join remotely.
23 October at 1:45–3:15 pm The traffic sign as template for humorous and persuasive discourse
Online link
28 October at 9:45–11:15 am Tools for analyzing visuals in comics
Online link
28 October at 12:00 am –1:30 pm Narrating and focalizing visually and visual-verbally in comics and graphic novels
29 October at 9:45–11:15 am Can a documentary film be animated – and if so, how?
29 October at 12:00 am – 1:30 pm Metaphors of cancer in short animation films: a corpus study
30 October 9:45– 11:15 am Depicting family life in children’s picture books: a corpus study