Exploring Dystopia through Multimodal Literacies

 

Authoritarian government control is an extremely pertinent topic, as it is the antithesis of representative and democratic government. Some of the most severe humanitarian crises have arisen from authoritative governments, and so identifying these forms of governments, and how they form, is important in an informed populace. The graphic novel V for Vendetta is a valuable resource to begin an examination of this topic, and the related themes of fascism, anarchy, nationalism, racism, state control, propaganda, and dystopia. This topic is a good subject for a multimodal analysis, as there are so many texts where these themes intersect.

The concept of multimodal literacy is the postulation that there are literacies beyond the traditional ones of reading and writing. Besides print media, there are also other forms of text including images, audio, video, and multimedia. There are also different ways of extracting information from text. In the globalised digital era, “literacy pedagogy now must account for the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies” as well as “culturally and linguistically diverse… plurality of texts” (The New London Group 2000).

 

The variety of literacies in the digital age, from https://blogsandra.home.blog/2019/02/19/literacy-not-so-literally/

 

 Graphic Novels

1. V for Vendetta (1989) by Moore, A., & Lloyd, D.
2. Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01. 2000AD (2010) by Wagner, J.
3. The Complete Maus (2011) by Spiegelman, A.

 

V for Vendetta (Moore & Lloyd, 1989)

 

The theme for this exploration comes from the graphic novel V for Vendetta. This novel is set in a dystopian future United Kingdom. In this alternate future, much of the world has been destroyed by nuclear weapons. The UK itself is ruled by the fascist Norsefire political party, which represses ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, while suppressing dissent. The first stories for V for Vendetta were created in the early 1980s, and were meant to extrapolate the policies of the contemporary government to their extreme conclusion. This theme is further explored in other graphic novels. Judge Dredd has a similar setting and background, where powerful law enforcement judges maintain state control in a post-apocalyptic world created by nuclear war, although this story is set in a Mega city that extends along the eastern coast of North America. Instead of being a story about a dystopian future, Maus is a historical examination of Nazi Germany with the Nazis represented as cats and Jewish people as mice. All three of these texts explore themes of dictatorial government and police control, while V for Vendetta and Maus deal more specifically with fascism, nationalism, and racism.

Graphic novels can be an important modality to include in pedagogy. Miller notes that graphic novels often “engage reluctant or struggling readers” (2019). Core characteristics of graphic novels are the presence of imagery and art work. The presence of art work allows the author to express themself in ways not possible with prose alone (Miller 2019). Furthermore, Taylor and Leung state that reducing learning only to reading and writing, while excluding art, may be harmful to children from a variety of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds (2020).

 

 Videos

1. V for Vendetta (2005) [film] by James McTeigue
2. The Untold Truth Of V For Vendetta (3 May 2022) [YouTube] by Looper
3. HyperNormalisation (2016) [film] by Adam Curtis
4. Margaret MacMillan: Margaret Thatcher and the Perils of Pride Ep. 4 (30 Mar 2016) [YouTube] by CBC

 

These videos intersect with the graphic novel in various ways. The 2005 movie adaptation largely shares the setting and characters of the graphic novel, but with significant changes to the plot. Due to the similarities to the graphic novel, the movie deals with the same topics, although in a more contemporary context. The Untold Truth gives background about V for Vendetta, including a biography of its author, the political context of its creation, as well as some of its literary influences. The other videos expand on some of the political themes being examined.

Videos are an important text form as they include large amounts of meaning in a variety of combined forms including dialogue, gestures, facial expressions, and music. The presence of these combined forms allows students to use modalities they’re familiar with to decipher other modalities.

 

Printed Books

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
3. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
4. Politics, Power and the Common Good: An Introduction to Political Science, 6th ed. by Mintz, E., D. Close, and O. Croci.

 

The novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are probably the best known dystopian texts, while We predates both. The authoritarian governments in these novels aren’t explicitly fascist, but they deal more specifically with dystopia and government control. The textbook Politics, Power and the Common Good provides background information on political parties and ideologies.

Printed text is the traditional form of literacy and teaching print media literacy was the focus of teaching for a very long time. Printed text remains important because it is very information dense. It is important to teach, as its elements are present in a variety of text forms. It is also the central modality in certain settings, specifically academic ones. Reading improves a variety of academic markers, including grammar, spelling, and vocabulary (Levine, Cherrier, Holding & Koester, 2022).

 

Music

1. National Front by The Pigs (1977)
2. Bloody Revolutions by The Crass (1986)
3. Work Together by The Oppressed (1984)

 

The same political and social climate that precipitated the creation of V is for Vendetta is also responsible for a number of songs. 1979 marked a change in the political, as well as musical, direction of the United Kingdom. Punk rock fragmented into a couple of different sub-genres, including Oi!. Oi! developed as music for the working class, and the songs they produced addressed their interests and concerns. “Oi! music was an attempt to keep punk a populist, street-level phenomenon; most of it came from the Cockney working class of London’s East End“ (Oi! Music Genre Overview | AllMusic, n.d.). Songs addressing the issues of authoritarianism, police brutality, and racism were common in these genres.

Music is an interesting modality since it de- empathises language to such a large degree. There is music completely without lyrics, but even when music has lyrics, it’s common for much of it to remain undecoded by the listener. Meaning is gleaned from elements of the song, like rhythm, melody, and tone. Music is often a significant portion of students’ lives, and incorporating it in instruction might aid and encourage their learning. Taylor and Leung write that incorporating music in the curriculum of children from indigenous and African-American backgrounds improved their academic achievements (2020).

 

Conclusion

 Teaching our students multimodal literacy is important in the current global world. Our students come from a variety of social, economic, and cultural backgrounds, each of which equips them with a variety of literacy. In order to fully engage them, we must ensure that we fully engage traditional, art, video, media, and musical literacies. Also, our students continue to operate in environments with a variety of modalities as adults. As teachers, we must ensure that they are literate in multiple modalities to encourage and support continued success. V for Vendetta is a valuable resource to engage with these modalities because of how it intersects with so many texts. Not only is this text available as both a film and graphic novel, but it was influenced by seminal printed texts and the political background that led to its creation, also led to the creation of a variety of other texts.

 

References

Levine, S. L., Cherrier, S., Holding, A. C., & Koestner, R. (2022). For the love of reading: Recreational reading reduces psychological distress in college students and autonomous motivation is the key. Journal of American College Health, 70 (1), pp. 158-164.

Miller, Shveta.  (July 21, 2019). “The surprising benefits of student-created graphic novels.” Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved from: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/student-graphic-novels

Moore, A. & Lloyd, D. (1989). V for Vendetta. DC Comics.

Oi! Music Genre Overview | AllMusic. (n.d.). AllMusic. https://www.allmusic.com/style/oi%21-ma0000002761

Taylor, S. & Leung, C. (2020). Multimodal Literacy and Social Interaction: Young Childrens’ Literacy Learning. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48, 1-10.

The New London Group. (2000). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing social futures. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (Eds.), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures (pp. 9-38). South Yarra: MacMillan.