Multimodal Complications of Characterisation in Modernised Televisual Adaptations

This chapter examines the multimodal complications of characterisation in telecinematic discourse, arguing that the modernised adaptation which preserves source-text language pushes parameters in the way para- and non-linguistic elements may interact with linguistic ones. Compared to past telecinematic stylistics research, it expands its focus to the dynamic construction of character alongside plot, while testing additional methods such as prosodic analysis. The chapter updates Culpeper&s;s (2001) account of characterisation for telecinematic discourse while evaluating the impact of adaptation constraints on characterisation, using as the case study King Lear (Eyre, 2018), a modernised made-for-television film adaptation of the Shakespearean play. Through examinations of cross-modal ambiguity extension, discourse structure reinterpretation, paralinguistic upstaging of language, and prosodic mismatch in four paired excerpts, it reveals how multimodally constructed stylistic complications foreground Lear&s;s character development. The research also underscores the symbolic centrality of two objects, a decree document and an iron horseshoe, in a telecinematic narrative strategy bridging Lear&s;s different stages.