Coherence Features in Multimodal Electronic Literary Texts

Abstract

The article deals with the coherence specificity in electronic literary texts. The author specifies the phenomenon of electronic literary text and covers several questions concerning its multimodal structure and the character of correlation between its elements. Multimodal structure of electronic literary texts represents specific textuality which is supported by the peculiar connections between its verbal and non-verbal elements. Multimodality involves components from various semiotic systems (text, sound, video, graphics, and animation), while participants of electronic discourse use various sensory organs to decode the information. Global cohesion in the electronic literary text is achieved by the direct and indirect denotative relevance of its verbal and non-verbal elements that conform (thematically or at the associative stage) to various categories of fictional worlds (characters, themes and motives). The research materials include several electronic literary texts (based on different platforms and technologies, such as Adobe Flash, HTML 5) that demonstrate the use of conceptually valid polycode elements in their structure.