Cultural transportation: A multimodal analysis of Julie Sykes' Unicorn Academy

Abstract

This research study analyzes the magical school trope in a Netflix series Unicorn Academy (2018present) by Julie Sykes and Linda Chapman in the contemporary fantasy of children through the lens of multi-modal social semiotic analysis. The study examines different verbal and visual modes of communication to create meaning and multi-modal resources that transform the traditional fantasy genre for modern children. The study based on Multimodal Social Semiotic Theory which is focused on representational, interactive, and compositional meanings that describes the narrative discourse, character interaction, visual imagery, color symbolism, spatial organization and compositional structure in the Unicorn Academy. The result shows that it presented the meaning through the interdependent use of both linguistic and visual semiotic resources with respect to the traditional magical school archetype. However, this study discusses the transition of magical school into an ecologically interconnected and collective learning environment. Unicorns are presented as symbolic images of purity or transcendence as well as emotionally expressive partners. Result shows that Multimodal fantasy narrative merges the mythic traditions and Western culture value systems such as inclusivity, environmental awareness, emotional literacy, and collaborative identity development. This research study contributes to children's fantasy literature, multimodal discourse analysis, and contemporary adoption of the magical school narrative.