Reconsidering Creativity and Modality with Japanese Writing (Download PDF)
Emily Yuko Cousins, International Christian UniversityÂ
Multimodal composition is sometimes framed as enhancing students’ creative expressive potential by offering more resources with which to showcase uniqueness and difference, compared to traditional print-based writing. Yet this raises the question of what assumptions about creativity shape our discussions of the imperatives of multimodal composition, and how these understandings may limit our recognition of and appreciation for other forms of creativity in composing. Drawing from translingual theory, I suggest that reorienting mainstream notions of creativity in our engagements with multimodality is necessary to avoid reinforcing approaches that privilege certain forms of difference over others. I look at unconventional Japanese script usage and calligraphy practices to forward alternative notions of creativity while foregrounding the materiality and creative labor involved in all composing. Examining non-alphabetic writing systems may help complicate both the ostensibly amodal identity of traditional alphabetic writing; cross – language explorations in composition can therefore have important implications for how we approach multimodality in our increasingly diverse and multilingual classrooms.
