1887
Volume 30, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0929-0907
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9943

Abstract

Abstract

Literary narratology has rightly devoted much attention to analysing the source(s) of verbal information about the story world, usually discussed under the label “narration”, and to any agent(s) that present(s) non-verbalized perspectives on it, usually discussed under the label “focalization”. Assessing the identity of narrators and focalizers is crucial for understanding what is going on in the story world. Which narrative agent is in charge? Is the narration and/or focalization layered? If the latter, is there any “colouring” by the higher-level narrative agent of anything said, thought, or experienced by the lower-level agent? Is the information provided trustworthy? Nuanced? Prejudiced? Narration and focalization have supra-medial as well as medium-specific dimensions. Over the past years, the issue of how these concepts function in the medium of comics, which combines visuals and language, has begun to be systematically addressed. This paper aims to show how the visual mode can, on its own or combined with the written-language mode, signal the sources of narration, focalization, and joint narration-and-focalization, as well as distinguish between different levels at which these take place.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/pc.22007.for
2023-11-09
2024-12-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/pc.22007.for.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/pc.22007.for&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Abbott, Michael & Charles Forceville
    2011 Visual representation of emotion in manga: loss of control is loss of hands in Azumanga Daioh (vol. 4). Language and Literature20(2). 91–112. 10.1177/0963947011402182
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947011402182 [Google Scholar]
  2. Baetens, Jan & Hugo Frey
    2015The graphic novel: An introduction. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bal, Mieke
    2017Narratology: Introduction to the theory of narrative (4th ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Booth, Wayne C.
    1983The rhetoric of fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226065595.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226065595.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  5. Borkent, Mike
    2017 Mediated characters: Multimodal viewpoint construction in comics. Cognitive Linguistics28(3). 539–563. 10.1515/cog‑2016‑0098
    https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2016-0098 [Google Scholar]
  6. Brinton, Laurel
    1980 Represented perception: A study in narrative style. Poetics91. 363–381. 10.1016/0304‑422X(80)90028‑5
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(80)90028-5 [Google Scholar]
  7. Chatman, Seymour
    1990Coming to terms. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Cohn, Neil
    2021Who understands comics? Questioning the universality of visual language comprehension. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 10.5040/9781350156074
    https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350156074 [Google Scholar]
  9. Dancygier, Barbara
    2012The language of stories: A cognitive approach. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Dubray, David & Jochen Laubrock
    2019 Deep CNN-based speech balloon detection and segmentation for comic books. InProceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition, 1237–1243. Sydney, Australia. 10.1109/ICDAR.2019.00200
    https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDAR.2019.00200 [Google Scholar]
  11. Forceville, Charles
    2005 Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of anger in the Asterix album La Zizanie. Journal of Pragmatics37(1). 69–88. 10.1016/j.pragma.2003.10.002
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2003.10.002 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2013 Creative visual duality in comics balloons. InTony Veale, Kurt Feyaerts & Charles Forceville (eds.), Creativity and the agile mind: A multi-disciplinary exploration of a multi-faceted phenomenon, 253–273. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110295290.253
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110295290.253 [Google Scholar]
  13. 2020Visual and multimodal communication: Applying the Relevance principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oso/9780190845230.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190845230.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  14. 2021 Multimodality. InXu Wen & John R. Taylor (eds.), The Routledge handbook of Cognitive linguistics, 676–687. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781351034708‑45
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351034708-45 [Google Scholar]
  15. Forceville, Charles, Tony Veale & Kurt Feyaerts
    2010 Balloonics: The visuals of balloons in comics. InJoyce Goggin & Dan Hassler-Forest (eds.), The rise and reason of comics and graphic literature: Critical essays on the form, 56–73. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Groensteen, Thierry
    2013Comics and narration (transl. byAnn Miller). Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037702.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781617037702.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  17. Herman, David
    2002Story logic: Problems and possibilities of narrative. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Horstkotte, Silke & Nancy Pedri
    2011 Focalization in graphic narrative. Narrative19(3). 330–357. 10.1353/nar.2011.0021
    https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2011.0021 [Google Scholar]
  19. Jost, François
    2004 The look: From film to novel. An essay in comparative narratology. InRobert Stam & Alessandra Raengo (eds.), A companion to literature and film, 71–80. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 10.1002/9780470999127.ch5
    https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470999127.ch5 [Google Scholar]
  20. Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen
    2006Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203619728
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203619728 [Google Scholar]
  21. Kukkonen, Karin
    2013Contemporary comics storytelling. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 10.2307/j.ctt1ddr8c6
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ddr8c6 [Google Scholar]
  22. La Cour, Erin, Simon Grennan & Rik Spanjers
    2022 Introduction. InErin la Cour, Simon Grennan & Rik Spanjers (eds.), Key terms in comics studies, 1–2. London: Palgrave. 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑74974‑3_1
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74974-3_1 [Google Scholar]
  23. Laubrock, Jochen, Sven Hohenstein & Matthias Kümmerer
    2018 Attention to comics: Cognitive processing during the reading of graphic literature. InAlexander Dunst, Jochen Laubrock & Janina Wildfeuer (eds.), Empirical comics research, 239–263. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315185354‑12
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315185354-12 [Google Scholar]
  24. Laubrock, Jochen & Alexander Dunst
    2020 Computational approaches to comics analysis. Topics in Cognitive Science121. 274–310. 10.1111/tops.12476
    https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12476 [Google Scholar]
  25. Mikkonen, Kai
    2008 Presenting minds in graphic narratives. Partial Answers6(2). 301–321. 10.1353/pan.0.0022
    https://doi.org/10.1353/pan.0.0022 [Google Scholar]
  26. 2017The narratology of comic art. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315410135
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315410135 [Google Scholar]
  27. Ojha, Amitash, Charles Forceville & Bipin Indurkhya
    2021 An experimental study on the effect of emotion lines in comics. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies2431. 305–324. 10.1515/sem‑2019‑0079
    https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2019-0079 [Google Scholar]
  28. Palmer, Alan
    2004Fictional minds. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith
    2005Contemporary poetics (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Ryan, Marie-Laure
    (ed.) 2004Narrative across media. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Shinohara, Kazuko & Yoshihiro Matsunaka
    2009 Pictorial metaphors of emotion in Japanese comics. InCharles Forceville & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.), Multimodal Metaphor, 265–293. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110215366.4.265
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110215366.4.265 [Google Scholar]
  32. Smith, Murray
    1995Engaging characters: Fiction, emotion, and the cinema. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson
    1995Relevance theory: Communication and cognition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Thon, Jan-Noël
    2016Transmedial narratology and contemporary media culture. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 10.2307/j.ctt1d8h8vn
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1d8h8vn [Google Scholar]
  35. Van Duijn, Max J., Ineke Sluiter & Arie Verhagen
    2015 When narrative takes over: The representation of embedded mindstates in Shakespeare’s Othello. Language and Literature24(2). 148–166. 10.1177/0963947015572274
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947015572274 [Google Scholar]
  36. Van Duijn, Max & Arie Verhagen
    2019 Recursive embedding of viewpoints, irregularity, and the role for a flexible framework. Pragmatics29(2). 198–225. 10.1075/prag.18049.van
    https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18049.van [Google Scholar]
  37. Vandelanotte, Lieven
    2017 Viewpoint. InBarbara Dancygier (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of Cognitive linguistics, 157–171. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316339732.011
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316339732.011 [Google Scholar]
  38. Example I (Figure 1). Watchmen, text byAlan Moore and visuals byDave Gibbons. © DC comics 1986.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Example II. Les Lauriers de César, text byRené Goscinnyand visuals byAlbert Uderzo. © Dargaud 1972.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Examples III and VI. Tintin et les Picaros, byHergé. © Casterman 1976.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Example IV (Figure 2). Soirs de Paris: Le Martial, text byPhilippe Avriland visuals byFrançois Petit-Roulet. © Humanoïdes Associés 1989.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Example V (Figure 3) and Example XVI (Figure 13). À la Recherche du Temps Perdu: A l’Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs, Volume I, byMarcel Proust and Stéphane Heuet, © Guy Delcourt 2000.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Example VII (Figure 4). Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, byChris Ware. © Pantheon 2000.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Example VIII (Figure 5) and Example XI (Figure 8). Persepolis, byMarjane Satrapi translated by Anjali Singh. © Pantheon 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Example IX (Figure 6). Goliath, byTom Gauld. © Drawn & Quarterly 2012.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Example X (Figure 7) and Example XII (Figure 9). Le Combat Ordinaire (VolumeI1), byManu Larcenet. © Dargaud 2007 [2003].
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Example XIII (Figure 10). Yotsubato, (vol.51), byKiyohiko Azuma. © Media Works 2006.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Example XIV (Figure 11). Azumanga Daioh, The Omnibus, byKiyohiko Azuma. © AD Vision.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Example XV (Figure 12). Aline et les Autres, byGuy Delisle. © L’Association 1999.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Example XVII (Figure 14). Prosopopus, byNicholas de Crécy. © Dupuis 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.22007.for
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.22007.for
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error