This dissertation builds upon Dresang's (1999) Radical Change Theory (RCT) and Norris's (2004) Multimodal Interaction Analysis (MIA). It also develops and employs two new analytical tools: Digital Radical Change Theory (DRCT) and Multimodal Literary Analysis (MLA). Through close reading and multimodal analysis, this research investigates how multiple modes of communication by digital tools influence a reader’s meaning making. While previous scholars like Dresang (1999), Kress (2003), Jewitt (2008), among others, have examined multimodality in print texts, this study specifically addresses this concept and its use in digital literature. This dissertation examines how multimodal elements within a digital or electronic work of literature impact meaning-making through a case study of Art Spiegelman's Maus II: A Survivor's Tale - And Here My Troubles Began, Chapter 2: Auschwitz (Time Flies) as it appears in the DVD MetaMaus. This digital version of Maus represents an early attempt at incorporating the newly available tools of the mid-1990s. The findings suggest that meaning emerges not only from individual modes, but also through their complex interactions and layering, requiring readers to actively engage in meaning-making across multiple semiotic domains, as theorized by Gee (2004) and the New London Group (2000). By examining what Bucher (2017) identified as the "two basic problems of multimodality" (p. 92)—compositionality and reception—this research contributes new methodological and theoretical frameworks for analyzing electronic texts and demonstrates how digital elements both complicate and clarify textual understanding. The study addresses a significant gap in scholarly approaches to studying digital literature (2006, 2007) while responding to calls from scholars like Moje (2009) for more research on how new media forms impact literacy practices.
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