Alfabeto para o fim do mundo

In this article we focus on the multimodal novel, a genre category with virtually no tradition in Portuguese literary theory and criticism. By exploring multiple strategies of plurissemiotic convergence, multimodal narratives aren’t restricted to verbal expression, as conventionally associated with literary fiction, but creatively resort to different modes and/or media, which synergistically cooperate with the printed word in the production of literary meaning. In the light of the theoretical framework laid down by the thriving field of multimodal narratology, we propose a reading of Hífen (2021), the latest novel by Portuguese writer Patrícia Portela, undoubtedly one of the contemporary novelists in whose fiction multissemiotic cross-fertilization is more blatantly explored.