ABSTRACT
This chapter maps the literature related to “multimodality” in reading research and argues for an expanded understanding of the concept rooted in postcolonial theories. The chapter reviews various scholarly lineages and debates that have characterized the development of multimodality, highlighting how the term has opened up literacy to include a wider range of meaning-making practices (e.g. images, gestures, music, movement, language) and to attend to collective acts of creation and interpretation. It suggests, however, that the possibilities of such evolutions are not intrinsic to multimodality, but must be understood against the present landscape of transnational migration, global neoliberalism, and resurgent white nationalism. The chapter argues that the promise of multimodality, then, hinges on its ability to engage these contexts, and offers postcolonial theories – specifically, the work of Édouard Glissant – as a way to address the animating influence of global power asymmetries on in- and out-of-school reading and writing. It concludes by mobilizing Glissant in reading two examples of community-based literacy practice – the Dancing Across Borders troupe, and the Collective Educational Futures Project – and outlining the implications such a perspective might hold for future multimodal inquiries in literacy research, teaching, and learning.
