<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

In natural face-to-face interactions, verbal communication always occurs in association with expressions of nonverbal behavior. The functional contribution of these multimodal aspects to the meaning of the message and to its effects fulfils multiple communicative functions that differ according primarily to the speaker’s intentions, to the interpersonal relations between the speaker and the addressee, to the nature of the message, and to the context.
When nonverbal behavior is reproduced in a written literary text, it becomes functional to the textual and narrative process as it serves as a signifier for the reader. A fictional character is never fixed and unchanging. Through writing, each author encourages the explicit or implicit evocation of a multisensory world, which readers decode and reconstruct, inevitably conditioned by their cognitive and cultural environment.
In this paper, we refer to Salinger’s famous novel <italic>The Catcher in the Rye</italic> to analyze the literary valence of representing the characters’ multisensory communication, focusing on the core relationship between the explicit and the implicit parts in reconstructing the psychological depth of a literary character.
</abstract>

In natural face-to-face interactions, verbal communication always occurs in association with expressions of nonverbal behavior. The functional contribution of these multimodal aspects to the meaning of the message and to its effects fulfils multiple communicative functions that differ according primarily to the speaker’s intentions, to the interpersonal relations between the speaker and the addressee, to the nature of the message, and to the context.
When nonverbal behavior is reproduced in a written literary text, it becomes functional to the textual and narrative process as it serves as a signifier for the reader. A fictional character is never fixed and unchanging. Through writing, each author encourages the explicit or implicit evocation of a multisensory world, which readers decode and reconstruct, inevitably conditioned by their cognitive and cultural environment.
In this paper, we refer to Salinger’s famous novel The Catcher in the Rye to analyze the literary valence of representing the characters’ multisensory communication, focusing on the core relationship between the explicit and the implicit parts in reconstructing the psychological depth of a literary character.

Reconstructed multisensoriality. Reading <italic>The Catcher in the Rye</italic>

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Brescia)

Gestalt Theory

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Reconstructed multisensoriality. Reading 

In natural face-to-face interactions, verbal communication always occurs in association with expressions of nonverbal behavior. The functional contribution of...

Reconstructed multisensoriality. Reading The Catcher in the Rye

Publié en ligne: 30 août 2023

Pages: 49 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2023-0010

Mots clés
multimodal communication, multisensoriality, nonverbal behavior in literature (novels), character psychology

© 2023 Maria Paola Tenchini et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Reconstructed multisensoriality. Reading The Catcher in the Rye

Publié en ligne: 30 août 2023

Pages: 49 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2023-0010

Mots clésmultimodal communication, multisensoriality, nonverbal behavior in literature (novels), character psychology

© 2023 Maria Paola Tenchini et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
multimodal communication, multisensoriality, nonverbal behavior in literature (novels), character psychology