Between Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and Instagram Narratives:  Multimodal Argumentation in Arab Netizens’ Perlocutionary Acts Towards Captain America 4

Inas Hussein Hassan; Sara Yahya ElMansy

doi:10.29333/ejecs/1708

Authors

Inas Hussein Hassan College of Language and Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9903-3969
Sara Yahya ElMansy College of Language and Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4618-1006

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1708

Keywords:

Captain America 4: New World Order, Instagram posts, multimodal argumentation, Speech Act theory

Abstract

During the past two decades, the main focus in the fast-growing field of multimodality has been the inter-semiotic relationships between different modes. However, due attention has recently been paid to one element which is lacking in multimodal texts: the argumentative element. This is referred to in the literature as multimodal argumentation in the belief that an argument is neither verbal nor visual and, in analyzing argumentative discourse, attention is to be paid to both verbal and visual modes with no need for a priori division. This research attempts to provide further study in this direction, thus adding to the current interest in giving a new perspective to the analysis of argumentative discourse. This research aims to explore how Instagram posts, viewed as representing perlocutionary acts, operate as instances of multimodal argumentation. The study is structured within the Contemporary Theoretical Framework of the Speech Act theory (Harris et al., 2018) and Multimodal Argumentation (Tseronis, 2018, 2020). Data for the study are images from The Incredible Hulk Comic Book (1980) and Instagram spoof posts (photos and captions) by Arab Netizens on 11^th to 13^th November (2022) towards the first trailer for Captain America 4: New World Order (2024), which were in response to Marvel Studios’ announcement in September 2022. A descriptive qualitative approach has been adopted as it describes a particular perspective qualitatively. Findings have revealed that spoof Instagram posts operating as a perlocutionary act are potential instances of multimodal argumentation. The research might add to the domain of speech acts and the literature on multimodal argumentation.

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Author Biographies

Inas Hussein Hassan, College of Language and Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

Inas Hussein Hassan is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and currently the Vice Dean for Postgraduate Studies and Scientific Research at the College of Language & Communication (CLC) - Alexandria, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt. Her research interests are in Discourse Analysis, Multimodality, Pragmatics and Education studies.

Sara Yahya ElMansy, College of Language and Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

Sara Yahya ElMansy is a lecturer of Applied Linguistics and currently the Head of Humanities Department at the College of Language & Communication (CLC) - Alexandria, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt. She is interested in a wide array of interdisciplinary research in Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Multimodality, Cognitive Linguistics and Translation studies.

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