GUEST ARTICLE: From isolation to constellation: Narrative focalisation in current technology disclosures

• Autores: Carmen Sancho Guinda
• Localización: Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos ( AELFE ), ISSN-e 2340-2784, ISSN 1139-7241, Nº. 44, 2022, págs. 17-48
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.17398/2340-2784.44.17
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    En este artículo exploro la focalización narrativa en la divulgación de tecnologías universitarias, un género digital relativamente reciente y orientado a la comercialización de la ciencia y la tecnología y la promoción institucional mediante su difusión en línea. Surgido en el entorno académico, este género se encuentra aún en proceso de consolidación y parece muy propenso a la hibridación discursiva. Mi estudio se basa en un marco teórico ecléctico que combina los principios de la Netnografía con la Investigación Narrativa, los Análisis (Críticos) del Género y de la Multimodalidad y la Teoría del Posicionamiento para examinar el papel del narrador y las prácticas narrativas contenidas en dos tipos de documentos interrelacionados y publicados por la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid en su página web: el actual Catálogo de Tecnologías de la institución y un conjunto destacado de tecnologías y proyectos innovadores relatados en formato de cómic, ambos en su versión en lengua inglesa.

    El análisis de las 134 muestras del Catálogo y de los 12 ejemplares de cómic revela cómo la hibridación generada por las prestaciones digitales influye sobre la narrativa y las estrategias promocionales. Subrayo de manera especial el concepto de “focalización narrativa” e intento responder a la célebre pregunta goffmaniana “¿Quién habla?”. Asimismo, planteo considerar la constelación de géneros como un modo narrativo y, en última instancia, como herramienta de mercadotecnia institucional.

  • English

    In this article, I explore focalisation in the mediated account of university technology disclosures, a relatively recent digital genre for science and technology commercialisation and institutional promotion through online dissemination and outreach. Born in academic settings, this genre is still in-the-making and highly susceptible to discursive hybridity. My study draws on an eclectic framework that combines the principles of Netnography with Narrative Inquiry, (Critical) Genre and Multimodal Analysis, and Positioning Theory to examine the teller’s role and the telling practices contained in two types of interrelated documents published by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid on its webpage: the institution’s current Technologies Portfolio and a series of salient inhouse innovative technologies/projects rendered in comic-book format, both in their English version.

    The scrutiny of the 134 samples of the Portfolio and of the 12 instances of comic-books reveals how the hybridity generated by digital affordances influences narrative and, along with it, promotional strategies. I lay special emphasis on the concept of ‘narrative focalisation’ and attempt to answer thefamous Goffmanian question “Who is speaking?”, making the point that genre networking is a way of telling and ultimately of institutional branding.

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