An Expressionist Painter of the Fourteenth Century

Theophanes the Greek was one of the well-known artists of exceptional personality who lived in the second half of the 14th century. His talent stood out on account of the expressionist manner in which he portrayed his art creations and their impact on the school of Russian religious painting. His artistic talent, “swift brush” painting manner and life adventure can be compared with those of Doménikos Theotokópoulos (El Greco), another famous Greek painter, who brought the Cretan dramatic and expressionistic style to the West, influencing the Spanish Renaissance two hundred years after Theophanes. The artistic heritage of Theophanes stands between the short vibrant period of the Palaeologan Renaissance when the Byzantine Empire went through a terminal crisis, and the European Proto-Italian Renaissance. The artist seized the opportunity to unleash his creative work in the ancient Russian cities, unfolding his talent in the creation of large mural paintings. Characterized by his contemporaries as “Theophanes the Greek, icon painter and philosopher”, he enjoyed a high reputation in medieval Russian society. Present article questions Theophanes’ belonging to the hesychast movement and the attribution of the Muscovite icons and manuscripts to the painter. Considering the impact of Theophanes on Russian visual art, D. Talbot Rice stated: “It was thanks to the teaching of Greek immigrants like Theophanes that a sound foundation was established Russian painting, and it was on this basis that local styles were founded.” And it was in the Russian principalities that Theophanes developed his very distinctive style, enjoying carte blanche from the princes and boyars (aristocracy) to apply his creativity in various domains.

“Que nadie te arrebate esta partida”: An Analysis of a Historic Mexican Women’s Manifestation Journalist’ Article

Femicide events in Mexico has become a crisis along the country. The journalist’ article Que nadie te arrebate esta partida (2020) wrote it by the journalist Gabriela Warkentin sheds light through to the relation between femicide and three recent female stories. The present paper is based on critical discourse theory and Halliday’s (1978) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to scrutinize the journalist’ article. Besides, the present examination considers the importance of draw attention to the increasing prevalence of femicides as a national concern.

“President-Protector”: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of a News Report Promoting the Personality Cult of the President of Turkmenistan G. Berdymukhamedov

The cult of personality started by the first President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov has acquired new dimensions with the present leader of the country. The cult of personality of Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is actively constructed via mass media. This paper examines two short clips of a news report dedicated to the President’s birthday celebration that was broadcasted on the Turkmen national TV on 26 June 2020. The paper analyzes a set of specific mechanisms of flattery inflation used in the report and demonstrates special linguistic choices and visual patterns applied to force a specific ideology on the audience. Due to the multimodal nature of the analyzed discourse, multimodal critical discourse analysis has been implemented, additionally informed by the systemic functional linguistics and the visual semiotic analysis.

Exploring Instances of Feminism Movement in a Reggaeton Song: A Multi-Semiotic Critical Discourse Analysis

This study analyses the instances of feminism in a reggaeton song consulting a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA). It interprets these instances and provides a description to what they intend to present from a feminist perspective. It also attempts to find out what are the visual semiotic choices that the song presents to the audience such as the attributes, settings and salience. Finally, it aimed to explore how these elements are represented in the video. To achieve the goal of the study, I created a table where I included the visual semiotic elements previously mentioned. This table presents the three scenes that were chosen to be analyzed from the video and the semiotics elements according to the MCDA by Machin and Mayr (2012). Regarding the results of the study, they show that the visuals of the video represent instances where women have the power to stop men from abusing them. Even when the visuals show some fictional scenes, the interpretation is that women have the right and the power to make themselves be respected by men. In addition, the results showed as a reminder that there are movements which are there to help women in these injustices. Finally, in the last part of the song the final idea about the resistance of men violating women is represented as the final result of this study.

GE Big Boys Appliances: Towards a Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the SNL Fake Commercial

Nowadays, comedy shows like Saturday Night Live (SNL) have become popular and entertain many people around the world. For this study, a fake commercial for GE Big Boys Appliances, aired on YouTube in 2018 is analyzed to explore how discourse is used to represent gender roles and stereotypes. To conduct this multimodal discourse analysis, some elements of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) proposed by Halliday (1978), some notions of critical discourse analysis, and some features of the Machin’s (2010) visual semiotic framework are employed. The findings portray that the sketch shows a change concerning gender roles through time, but it still promotes the transmission of some classical gender stereotypes. Therefore, it is valuable to study comedy sketches to understand how traditional gender roles and stereotypes are still transmitted in social media.

Live Fast, Die Young: Bad Girls Do It Well – A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of M.I.A’s Music Video “Bad Girls”

Feminism has become part of the pop music discourse in recent years. Through M.I.A’s “Bad Girls” video, not only the image of empowered, independent, rebel women are portrayed, but also the celebration of culture and the relationship between women and men in an environment of equity is suggested. In order to propose an analysis and interpretation of “Bad Girls” video and song lyrics, a multimodal discourse analysis (Machin, 2010) is followed, as well as Halliday’s systematic functional linguistics framework. The findings from this analysis suggest a discourse of feminism and empowerment, but also inclusion and acceptance regardless of race, religion or gender.

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Most Viewed Reggaeton Video on Youtube by the LIV Super Bowl Halftime Show

We are what they eat and what we listen as well. Concerning this idea, it is essential to mention that reggaeton is one of the most consumed genres in many countries. Furthermore, to the extent that people regularly listen to music on platforms and express to like reggaeton in recent years, they may want to know more about what they are consuming. However, in the related literature, there is evidence of a negative impact on the women’s image and heavy load of sexual content (Gallucci, 2008; Noriega, 2014; Ramírez, 2012). Therefore, the present article analyses the discourse of “no me conoce” by J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Jhay Cortez. The lyrics and images were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2003) and visual semiotics (Machin, 2010). The findings suggest that this genre contributes negatively to educational stances, such as writing proficiency, vocabulary range, and reading comprehension.

“El Infierno”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Narco Culture in a Mexican Film

The portrayal of narco culture in media has increased in recent years as a result of the War of Drugs in Latin America. This paper, based on critical discourse theory and Halliday’s (1978) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), sheds light on the social and cultural impact of discourse found in a scene of the Mexican film “El Infierno” directed by Luis Estrada in 2010. Through the ideational and interpersonal processes, the dialogues of two speakers are analyzed. Additionally, the social impact of the discourse portrayed in the scene is discussed through Fairclough’s (1992) social theory of discourse. Findings suggest that social reality is reflected in the film through discourse as a means to develop critical thinking and reflection in the audience.