Multimodal Storytelling: Exploring the Semiotic Patterns of Narration and Focalization in “Pakistan Girl”

Abstract

In the digital era, the use of multimodal semiotic resources has remarkably changed the narrative experiences of the readers. The writer-reader engagement in interactive media has opened new possibilities for narrative meaning construction. Focalization in digital narratives is characterized by innovative multimodal approaches that construct the narrative voice and perspectives. Focalization is also a medium of ideological meaning-making and discursive construction of identities. The current study explores how comic writers position themselves ideologically by employing the textual and visual elements in Pakistan Girl. The insights drawn from Gennette’s (1980) framework for narrative structure have guided the study to identify different strategies used for developing Focalization in Pakistan Girl. The narratological approach of focalization is realized in The Pakistan Girl by using verbal and non-verbal cues like frames, gutters, panels, speech, thought balloons, and other fundamental features. The findings of the study demonstrate that the fleeting time and space among panels and gutters is an extremely complex phenomenon in comic narratives. Furthermore, there are numerous strategies of narration, like narrative rhythm and the configuration of temporality, that the comic writers have used to generate cognitive and perceptual focalization in Pakistani Girl. The current study is expected to encourage future scholars to explore the use of focalization in other medium-specific typologies.