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Brief CV

Charles Forceville was born in Heemstede, NL, in 1959. He studied English at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where after graduating he taught in the English, comparative literature, and Word & Image departments. From 1996-1998 he did a post-doc "Narration in Fiction and Film" at the University of Leyden. Currently he works in the Media Studies department of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, where he is associate professor. He serves as member of the advisory boards of Metaphor and Symbol, Journal of Pragmatics, Public Journal of Semiotics, and Atlantis, and the Benjamins series Review of Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Linguistic Studies ofLanguage and Cognition in Cultural Contexts. Forceville is programme director of the Research Master Media Studies and chairs the ASCA project AIM/Structure & Rhetoric in Multimodal Discourse. From 2005-2008 he was external examiner of the MPhil Text and Visual Studies (TVS) at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Apart from publishing scholarly articles and book chapters, he wrote some 200 reviews of English-language fiction for the Dutch national newspaper Trouw (1987-2007); he also occasionally contributed to the film magazine Skrien. The volume Multimodal Metaphor (Mouton De Gruyter), co-edited with Eduardo Urios-Aparisi, appeared in September 2009; see for its introduction http://www.degruyter.de/files/pdf/9783110205152Introduction.pdf . In 2008 he was given the opportunity, together with Kurt Feyaerts and Tony Veale, to spend six months as visiting fellow at VLAC (Vlaamse Academie/Royal Flemish Academy) in Brussels, Belgium, to work on the project The Agile Mind: Creativity in Models and Multimodal Discourse. An edited volume on the topic is currently under review by a publisher.On 4-5 June 2009, Forceville chaired the Researching and Applying Metaphor Workshop 2009, "Metaphor, Metonymy & Multimodality." For more information, see the "Adventures in Multimodality" (AIM) blog at http://muldisc.wordpress.com/

Scholarly background and beliefs

“Educated in a literature and linguistics department, I thrived on a passion for literature. But gradually I found the activity of interpreting literary works, while an enjoyable and important pursuit, no longer satisfied my scholarly ambitions. Adopting the Cognitive Linguistics' work on metaphor I developed a model of pictorial metaphor (Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising, Routledge 1996). Since my appointment as lecturer and researcher in Media Studies, my research has broadened from pictorial metaphor to multimodal metaphor, from static representations to moving images, and from advertising to other popular art forms, such as comics and animation. Over the past few years my work is shifting from multimodal metaphor per se to multimodal discourse (see: http://muldisc.wordpress.com/ ).

While I see text-based analyses of contemporary representations (literature, advertising, comics, cartoons, film) as basic to my scholarly work, my goal, in the broadest sense, is to contribute to cognitivist theories of the image and of multimodal discourses. I strive to make my work both theoretically insightful and practically applicable and attempt to formulate my findings in such a way as to enable verification and falsification as well as to provide starting points for empirical testing. I consider it crucial to demonstrate that humanities-oriented research focusing on art and popular culture is of interest to work that is being done in the social sciences – and vice versa.”     

Keywords in research and teaching

Multimodal metaphor, multimodal rhetoric & narrative, narrative across media, relevance theory, genre, documentary film, animation, comics & cartoons.

I am interested in supervising BA, MA and PhD theses and post-doc work about a wide range of topics pertaining to multimodal discourse involving visuals. My preference is for candidates who like problem-driven research, aim for a clear methodology, and are prepared to do systematic text-based analysis.

Prospective PhD candidates need to be aware of two important practicalities: (1) I can only supervise candidates that will eventually defend their PhD-thesis at the University of Amsterdam; (2) Unfortunately I do nothave, at present, financial resources, which means that candidates need to havefellowships, grants, or other sources of income to support themselves during 3-4 years (or at least a substantial portion of that period) to work and live in Amsterdam.

**The conspiracy in The Comfort of Strangers: narration in the novel and the film (Language and Literature 2002, vol. 11:2, 119-135)

**Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of ANGER inthe Asterix album *La Zizanie*(Journal of Pragmatics 37:1, 69-88 (2005)

**The source-path-goal schema in the autobiographical journey documentary: McElwee, Van der Keuken, Cole (2006). The New Reviewof Film and Television Studies 4:241-261.

**Art or ad?: the influence ofgenre-attribution on the interpretation of images(1999). SPIEL (Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft]18: 279-300.

**The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors (2002). Journal of Pragmatics 34: 1-14.

**Pictorial metaphor in advertisements (1994). Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9: 1-29.

**The metaphor COLIN IS A CHILD in Ian McEwan's, Harold Pinter's, and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers (1999). Metaphor and Symbol 14: 179-198.

**Educating the eye? Kress and Van Leeuwen's Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (1996) (1999). Review article. Language and Literature 8: 163-178.

**RaAM workshop 2009: "Metaphor, Metonymy&Multimodality"

**Information + contents&introduction to Multimodal Metaphor (Mouton de Gruyter, September 2009, ed. by Forceville&Urios-Aparisi)

** Bumper stories: The framing of commercial blocks on Dutch public television (2008). In: Jaap Kooijman, Patricia Pisters, and Wanda Strauven (eds), Mind the Screen: Media Concepts According to Thomas Elsasser. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 229-241

**Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendasfor research (2006). In: Gitte Kristiansen et al. Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 372-402.

(with Tony Veale&Kurt Feyaerts) **Balloonics: The visuals of balloons in comics (2010). In: Joyce Goggin&Dan Hassler-Forest (eds), The Rise and Reason of Comics and Graphic Literature: Critical Essays on the Form. Jefferson NC: McFarland, pp. 56-73.

Adventures in Multimodality (AIM) blog

Plenaries, Invited Lectures/Talks

4-7 July 12      (1) Invited paper“ Creative metaphors and metonyms: sound in film” for theme panel "Metaphor and Metonymy in Creative Thought and Expression Across Genres” (org. Susan Ryland & Helen Thomas); (2) invited paper “Creative mappings in GOOD IS LIGHT & BAD IS DARK” in films (with Thijs Renckens) for theme panel "Metaphor and Creativity" (org.Laura Hidalgo and Blanca Kraljevic), “RaAM conference Lancaster, UK.

27-29/6/12       Invited participation in Workshop Come Figure – A Whirlwind of Puzzles in the Understanding of Figurative Communication. Institute of Philosophy, London, UK. Org: Mihaela Popa and John Barnden. To be confirmed.

March/Apr 12     Visiting scholar at Granada University, Dept. of  English and German philology, Spain (org. Belén Soria). Participation in teaching programme, workshop on multimodal metaphor, and work on research.

20-23/9/11     Invited lectures on multimodal discourse at Linnaeus University, Växjö (org. Jörgen Bruhn, Lars Elleström,and Charlotte Hommerberg) and Lund University (org. Carita Paradis and Charlotte Hommerberg), Sweden.

28-29/3/11     Pictorial and multimodal discourse in stories and argumentation. Invited talk at European University Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder, Germany), founding international research consortium Dynamic Multimodal Communication (DMC) (org. Cornelia Mueller, Arnd Wasserloos, Guido Schnieders).

17-18/11/10     Invited talks on (1) Pictures & Relevance Theory; and (2) Multimodal Metaphor in Moving Images during workshop on Multimodal Metaphor and Expressional Movement, Freie Universität Berlin, funded by the Cluster of Exellence “Languages of Emotion” (org. Cornelia Müller, Hermann Kappelhof, Susanne Tag; other workshops by Todd Oakley).

1/6/10           Invited talk in the Multimodalities Seminar Series of the Literacy Research Discussion Group at University of Lancaster, UK (org. Mary Hamilton, Julia Gillen).

3 -8/5/10        Invited talks Austrian Association of University Teachers of English (AAUTE, Salzburg, org. Hartmut Stoeckl and Wolfgang Goertschacher), English dept. of  University of Salzburg (org: Hartmut Stöckl), English dept. Karl Franzens University at Graz (org. Bernard Ketteman), and Wissenschafts Universität Wien (org. Martin Stegu).

19-23/4/10    Three invited talks at symposium with representatives from various partner universities, celebrating the merger of Växjö University and the University of Kalmar into Linnaeus University (LnU), Sweden (org. Charlotte Hommerberg). Unable to attend because of Icelandic vulcano eruption.

28-30/1/10        Plenary talk Polish Cognitive Linguistics Association (PTJK), University of Lodz, Poland, 28-29 January 2009. (Org. Alina Kwiatkowska, Sylwia Dzeren-Glowacka et al.)

17-18/10/09    Invited participation Contextualization and Understanding conference, Institute for the Advanced Study in Humanities & Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, and talks at the Academia Sinica & Chengchi University. (Org. I-wen Su; Norman Teng; Sewen Sun).

23-25/9/09      Keynote lecture conference Communication, Cognition and Media, Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Braga, Portugal. Org. Augusto Soares da Silva. http://www.cicom2009.org/ing_cicom_index.html

28/7-1/8/09      Keynote lecture “Stylistics in comics: Pictorial runes.” Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), Roosevelt Academy/University College, Middelburg, The Netherlands. Org.Michael Burke. http://www.roac.nl/roac/pala.shtml

7-9/5/09          Invited participation Roundtable Discourse and Creativity, Dept. of English, City University of Hong Kong (Org. Rodney Jones). http://www.encityu.hk/2009/05/

26-28/3/09       Keynote lecture AESLA (Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada) conference,University of Ciudad Real, Spain (Org. Rosario Caballero). http://www.aesla.uji.es/congresoxxvii/

18-20/3/09       Invited lecture Image, Vision, Mind/Bilder, Sehen, Denken conference, at Chemnitz University of Technology (Org. Klaus Sachs-Hombach).

22-24/10/08     Plenary lecture at Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association Conference (AELCO/SCOLA 6), Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Valencia, Spain (Org. IgnasiNavarro, Jose Luis Otal et al.)

10-12/10/08      Plenary lecture Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communi­cation, Education, Learning and Knowledge. University of Rethymnon, Gallos Campus, Dept. of  Preschool Education, Crete, Greece (Org. Marios Pourkos, Eleni Katsoura, and Angeliki Polyzou).

11/9/08     "Norms and creative use in comics balloons. ” The Agile Mind: Creativity in Discourse and Art . Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (VLAC), Brussels, Belgium, 11-12 September 2008 (Org. Kurt Feyaerts, Charles Forceville, and Tony Veale).

7-9/6/07     Invited paper at Zeichen der Identitaet/Signs of Identity – Exploring the Borders conference, Leibniz University Hanover (Org. Klaus Rehkaemper, Marijanna Kresis, Gabrielle Diewald et al.).

21-25/5/07     Invited workshop and masterclass at "Multimodal Metaphor" expert meeting, De Bergse Bossen, Driebergen-Zeist/Tilburg University (org. Fons Maes). Other master classed by Dedre Gentner, Barbara Tversky, Paul Hekkert, Rachel Giora, Dianne Pecher, Larry Zbikowski, Seanna Coulson.

23/2-3/3/07    Various invited lectures and workshops at Universidad di Aruba and Instituto Pedagogico Arubano in Animation Art Aruba programme (Org. Mirto Laclé).

5-7/7/06    Invited lectureand workshop in Summer course “Multimodal discourse(s): image and communication.” Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha/ Cuenca, Facultad de Letras (Spain). Org.: Jesús Moya, Maria-Jésus Pinar, Rosario Caballero. Other participants: Gunther Kress, Eija Ventola, Lisa el Refaie, Crispin Thurlow, Rachel Segovia, Ernesto Suarez-Toste.

21-25/4/06     Two invited lectures on multimodal metaphor, PhD course on Multimodal Discourse + one invited plenary lecture on Peter van Straaten, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Facultad de Letras/Ciudad Real (Spain.(Org. Rosario Caballero).

25-29/3/04          Invited talk "Cultural factors in the interpretation of multimedial metaphor." Semioticis and the Humanities (International Congress jointly organized by Chinese Association of Social Sciences (CASS) and the International Association of Semiotic Studies (IASS), Beijing, China.

24-28/9/03      Invited talk “Pictorial metaphor in images and film.” Conference Bildwissenschaft zwischen Reflektion und Anwendung. Otto von Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Germany (Org. Klaus Sachs-Hombach).

22-2/02           “Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Modelof ANGER in comics.” Conference Social Cognition and Verbal Communication: Cultural Narratives, Linguistic Identities and Applied Argumentation in a Period of Social Transition” (Dutch-Hungarian Conference on Crosscultural Linguistics and Intercultural Communication), University of Pécs (PTE), Hungary (invited paper).

April 94         Two post-graduate seminars (invited) on pictorial metaphor, Trin­ity College, Dublin.

15/10/87         Invited paper at conference "Metaphor," Aesthet­ics So­ciety, Ljubl­jana, Yugo­slavia.

Online lecture "Discourse and Creativity" Roundtable, Hong Kong City University, May 2009

Extendedhomepage

On my extended homepage a full CV can be found, as well as abstracts of most ofmy papers and book chapters.

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