THE MULTIMODAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDENTITY OF POLITICIANS

Abstract

This paper will use the theoretical concepts of ‘intertextuality’, ‘interdiscursivity’ and ‘resemiotization’ to analyse four media texts on South African president, Jacob Zuma. The aims of the paper are, first, to analyse the role that intertextual references play in the construction of the identity of public figures. Second, the paper investigates the semiotic affordances of the visual and linguistic mode by tracing how previous discourses and texts about Jacob Zuma move across discursive spaces and modes. The findings suggest that reference to previous discourses play a fundamental role in the way in which Jacob Zuma is constructed. More specifically, resemiotization from the verbal to the visual mode seems to serve as a way to bring multiple discourses into a text without necessarily articulating these discourses linguistically. These findings are discussed within the broader framework of critical discourse analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• multimodality
• resemiotization
• intertextuality interdiscursive
• identity construction
• semiotic affordances

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the contributions made by two anonymous reviewers. I would also like to acknowledge Tommaso Milani for his comments on an earlier version of this paper. All errors that remain are entirely my own.

Notes

1 Zapiro is the pseudonym used by cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro. A defamation of character lawsuit was laid against him by Jacob Zuma, for the ‘raping lady justice’ cartoon which depicts Jacob Zuma and a few other ANC members holding down ‘Lady Justice’ and getting ready to rape her. The lawsuit was withdrawn in October 2012.

2 The woman that Jacob Zuma was accused of raping was HIV/AIDS positive. In response to a question during the trial of how he protected himself against HIV/AIDS, he answered that he took a shower afterwards to reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

Additional information

Marcelyn Oostendorp is a lecturer in the Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests include discourses and other (multimodal) meaning-making resources in the multilingual transformative context of South Africa.