Multimodal Literacies, Late Seventeenth-Century English Illustrated Broadsheets, and Graphic Narratives

Theorists of modern comics and graphic narratives point to seventeenth-century English illustrated broadsheets as being the primitive beginning of sequential graphic reading practice. Examination of both topical and decorative broadsheets designed for public display in the mid and late seventeenth century, however, reveal a more complex, multimodal reading experience that was accessible and appealing to the wide range of literacies that operated during this period. Broadsheets' sophisticated blending of visual, oral, and textual practices can be made more visible through the lens of our contemporary discussions of multimodal reading and learning practices.