Modes within Worlds. Multimodal Pragmastylistics and Political Power. A Case from "The Sandman"

This article explores the understudied field of Multimodal Pragmatics by analysing political discourse (Chilton 2004) and power relations (Fairclough [1989] 2014) in Netflix’s "The Sandman" (2022). The study focuses on the confrontation between Dream and Lucifer in Season 1, Episode 4, “A Hope in Hell”, where language and other semiotic modes coalesce to create and reinforce political meaning. Adopting the hybrid methodological approach of Multimodal Pragmastylistics (Nørgaard 2019; Payrató 2017), the study analyses the characters’ interactions, which constitute a multimodal duel featuring verbal assaults and visual projections – pragmatic acts aimed at political dominance. Findings suggest that Multimodal Pragmatics scholarship can be expanded by emphasising how context becomes layered when multiple semiotic modes are involved in meaning-making. This is exemplified by Dream and Lucifer’s management of contextual elements related to their sovereign identities. The article argues that a multimodal pragmatic approach provides critical tools for understanding how contemporary political communication relies on multimodal orchestration, even in fictional narratives.