Henkilöhahmot multimodaalisessa kerronnassa – tapaustutkimus kuvakirjan visuaalisesta kielestä ja karakterisaatiosta

Multimodal texts such as picturebooks are forms of artistic expres-sion communicating through the combination of the modes of the verbal, the visual and the aural. Picturebooks are not far removed from comics: they both include not only images and written texts but also visual tools such as sound effects, text boxes, speech bub-bles, bodily gestures, postures, and facial expressions, all of which reinforce the joint effect of the words and images. The aural mode is triggered during the reading process. Through these different modes, the reader experiences the joint narration of the verbal, the visual and the aural. This process makes the reader believe in and get an understanding of the characters and their characteristics. In our article, we examine how characters are built in a multimodal text and its translation. We illustrate the characterization in multimodal narration using the picturebook Kettu, Pöllö ja punainen pallo (Fox, Owl and the Red Ball) as an example.