multimodal resources the three characters, George, Curly’s Wife, and Lennie, are
represented as equally important. The character Curly’s wife is modally repositioned
from a marginal to a central character. In addition, the dossier reshapes her character
by visualising her vulnerability (in a series of photographs) and the telling of her
perspective on life via the mode of voice and song. The visual objects displayed in
the character files also realise relationships between the characters, as discussed in the
next section.
Table 4.2 Comparison of the modes and links in the dossier files of the characters
Curly’s wife, Lennie, George, and Curly1.
|
Character dossier |
Modes of |
Number of visual |
Number of links |
|
Curly |
Image and writing |
- | |
|
Curly’s Wife |
Image, writing and | ||
|
George |
Image, writing and | ||
|
Lennie |
Image, writing, and |
The Sharing of Objects, Visual and Audio Links
The visual sharing of objects and links across character files enables students to
pursue textual and thematic issues (Goodwyn, 2000). In this CD-ROM shared objects
appear to be a visual indication of a relationship between characters. Meaning is
constructed from the juxtaposition of different texts, and events which unfold
‘through reading across and among various media’ (Zancanella et al., 2000: 99). Four
of the character files contain shared visual objects.
' The dossier file of the character Curly is typical of the other character dossier files in the CD-ROM.
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