locations. Finally, the written text realises character through the narrative descriptions
of the novel. In the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ choice of mode is a choice of the level
(detail) of engagement with the entity character.
These multimodal resources enabled students to ‘navigate’ the entity character
modally in different ways via song, image, written description, or via the video clips.
Several students for example engaged with the entity character entirely via song. This
temporarily transformed the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ into a musical performance∕sound
track. Several students ‘watched’ the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ in the form of a film.
Others ‘read and animated’ the images via their movement through the text
momentarily overlaying the ‘Novel as CD-ROM’ with the genre of comic. In short,
the resources of screen enabled the students to bring different forms of engagement to
their interaction.
Conclusion
Engaging with the book Of Mice and Men required the students and teacher work
with the mode of writing. They read to imagine the characters, their motivations,
emotions, appearance, voice, and so on. The students’ identification with the
characters and the moral dilemmas they encountered is foregrounded in this reading.
The multimodal transformation of the novel Of Mice and Men to CD-ROM offers
several readings of the novel. It reshapes the characters, their relations and
motivations, and the narrative. It ‘fills in’ the descriptions of the characters: it ‘does’
much of the imaginative work demanded of the students as they read the book. The
electronic reorganisation of original text into the CD-ROM is fragmented, the
narrative is reconfigured, and the issues of morality brought about by the careful
written webs of connections are ruptured and diffused.
The CD-ROM provides the students with different tools to things to think with in
their engagement with the entity ‘character’ which reflect the demands of the
curriculum. The merging of voices in the Dossier of the CD-ROM offers an explicit
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