Interview with Theo van Leeuwen

Abstract

This issue of LEA features an interview with Professor Theo van Leeuwen, where – starting from the fundamental role of the Hallidayan socio-semiotic approach to language in the development of Multimodality – he illustrates the background of his theoretical work as social semiotician and critical discourse analyst. Theo van Leeuwen broadly deals with issues such as the new emerging field of Critical Multimodal Studies, the importance of the socio-cultural perspective in Multimodality and the potential encounter between Multimodality and Cognitivism, with special reference to the concept of “social cognition” and to Metaphor Theory. He concludes his conversation with a reflection on the function of Studies in the Humanities in a specialized and digitally mediated world.