Representation of Trauma and Recovery in Saving Face: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis

This study aims to examine how trauma and recovery are constructed through multimodal discourse in a Pakistani documentary, Saving Face with particular attention to the ways multimodal resources contribute to represent trauma and recovery. Guided by an analytical framework grounded in Multimodal Discourse Analysis, the study examines the interplay of linguistic and visual resources in the construction of meaning. Herman’s (2015) trauma-and-recovery model is incorporated as an interpretive lens to illuminate representations associated with safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection, while Visual Grammar developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2020) in Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (3rd Edition) provide systematic tools for analyzing how these meanings are discursively and constructed through multimodal. This study is significant for its interdisciplinary contribution to the growing body of work in English Linguistics by providing a multimodal perspective on how language and visuals construct trauma and recovery narratives. Keywords: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Trauma, Recovery, Saving Face, Multimodal Resources