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TOYS AS TEXTS: TOWARDS A MULTIMODAL FRAMEWORK TO TOYS’ SEMIOTICS

BRINQUEDOS COMO TEXTOS: POR UMA ABORDAGEM MULTIMODAL PARA SEMIÓTICA DOS BRINQUEDOS

ABSTRACT

Toys, in their myriad versions, have been historically considered as objects of investigation insofar as their educational use, play and effects are concerned. Nevertheless, it must be said that academic research in the direction of toys’ multimodal configurations and meaning-making potential has been quite scant, despite a few relevant studies in the area (Caldas-Coulthard & van Leeuwen, 2001Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. & Leeuwen, van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Baby’s First Toys and the Discursive Constructions of Babyhood. In: Folia Linguistica 35 (1-2). 2001., 2002Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. & van Leeuwen, T. (2002) Stunning, Shimmering, Iridescent: Toys as the Representation of Gendered Social Actors. In Litosseliti, Lia & Sunderland, Jane (Eds.). Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 91-108., 2004Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. & van Leeuwen, T. (2004). Discurso Crítico e Gênero no Mundo Infantil: Brinquedos e Representações de Atores Sociais. In: Revista Linguag(em) Discurso, volume 4, número especial.; Machin & Van Leeuwen, 2009MACHIN, D.; VAN LEEUWEN, T (2009). Toy as discourse: children’s war toys and the war on terror. Critical Discourse Studies, 6 (1), pp. 51-64. Routledge.; Almeida, 2006ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2006).Icons of Contemporary Childhood: A Visual and Lexicogrammatical Investigation of Toy Advertisements. 215 f. Tese de Doutorado. Florianópolis: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.; 2008ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2008). Beyond the Playground: The Representation of Reality in Fashion Dolls’ Advertisements. Linguag(em) (Dis)curso (Impresso), v. 8, p. 203-228.; 2009ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2009). Where have all the children gone? A visual semiotic account of advertisements for fashion dolls. Visual Communication (Print), v. 8, p. 481-501.; 2014ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2014). The political values embedded in a child s toy: The case of Girl Power in the Brazilian doll Susi. In: Visual Communication. Series: Handbooks of Communication Science [HoCS]. Machin, D. (Ed.).1ed.: De Gruyter Mouton, v. 1, p. 539-564.; 2017ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2017).; ITRA NEWSLETTER International Toy Research Association Vol. 21 No. 2 Winter 2017. International Toy Research Association Newsletter: Winter Issue, United Kingdom, p. 11-11, 26 dez. 2017.; 2018ALMEIDA, D. B. L. (2018). “It can cry, it can speak, it can pee”: Modality Values and Playing Affordances in Contemporary Baby Dolls’ Discourse. Ilha do Desterro. Florianópolis: Santa Catarina.). This paper presentation attempts at demonstrating how systems of signification derived from the Grammar of Visual Design (VG) by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006 [1996])Kress, G. & Van Leeuwen, T. (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge., such as the subsystem of modality (reality value), when combined with other concepts, such as Varney’s (1999Varney, W. (1999). Toys, play and participation. In: Brian Martin (ed.), Technology and Public participation. Wollongong, Australia: Science and Technology Studies, University of Wollogong, pp. 15-36.; 2003)Varney, W. (2003). Tamagotchis: All Byte, No Bark. In: : Berg-Lars-Erik; Nelson, Anders, Svensson, K. (eds). Toys in Educational and Socio-Cultural Contexts. SITREC - KTH. Stockholm International Research Centre. pp. 277-288. concept of technocracy of sensuality and Fleming’s (1996)Fleming, D. (1996) Powerplay: Toys as Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press. notions of harder representationality and tactile attachment, have proved effective as theoretical tools to toy semiotics by allowing to go beyond the investigation of toys’ two-dimensional perspective to check on their material configurations such as texture, smell, kinetic possibilities and the degree of realism of these three-dimensional childhood representations. By means of primarily linguistic lens, I believe to contribute to social semiotic research through the articulation of the analysis of linguistic aspects of data with the discussion of social issues such as gender roles, diversity, representation and inclusion. All in all, my main intention is to propose an innovative, exploratory look into toys as texts as well as ideologically-loaded cultural artefacts.

Keywords:
toys; semiotics; multimodality

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