Abstract
This chapter explores the logical function of graphic narrative, a second component of ideation alongside the experiential component. It stresses the hypotactic nature of comics, particularly its ability to project nested ‘text-worlds’, over against the paratactic sequentiality of the medium. Parataxis rests on adjacency and sequence, and so the chapter considers some approaches to determining sequence in graphic narrative structures. It offers some critiques of existing approaches, in that they operate largely at the level of the panel, rather than considering lower levels of organisation in the rank structure of graphic narrative, and that they prioritise determinate order over understanding of dependencies. The chapter describes the ‘cluster’ as a potential unit of reading analysis and argues that enclosures are always already ‘speech balloons’, in that they outline and project text-worlds. Transgressions beyond enclosing borders may be used to indicate immediacy, contact, a reaching out of textual elements into the phatic space of communion between creator and reader, the ‘discourse-world’ in which both collaboratively make meanings. The nested structure of comics discourse, its ability to present worlds within worlds and to shift from one level to another, is presented as an essential resource of comics meaning-making.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Chavanne’s work is just beginning to emerge in English (see Chavanne 2015 for a précis in English of this work).
References
Chavanne, Renaud. 2010. Composition de la bande dessinée. Montrouge: PLG.
———. 2015. ‘The Composition of Comics’. European Comic Art 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.3167/eca.2015.080108.
Cohn, Neil. 2013. The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Doxiadis, Apostolos, and Christos H. Papadimitriou. 2009. Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth. 1st ed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Eisner, Will. 2008. Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist. New York: W. W. Norton.
Gavins, Joanna. 2007. Text World Theory: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Genette, Gerard. 1983. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Reprinted edition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Grice, Paul. 1975. ‘Logic and Conversation’. In Syntax and Semantics, edited by Peter Cole and Jerry Morgan, vol. 3, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.
Groensteen, Thierry. 2009. The System of Comics. Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Halliday, M. A. K., and Christian Matthiessen. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3rd ed. London; New York: Routledge.
Halliday, M. A. K., and Jonathan J. Webster. 2009. The Essential Halliday. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Harvey, Robert C. 1996. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Hergé. 1992. The Adventures of Tintin: ‘The Calculus Affair’, ‘The Red Sea Sharks’ and ‘Tintin in Tibet’ v. 6. New edition. London: Methuen Young Books.
Horrocks, Dylan. 2003. ‘THE PERFECT PLANET: Comics, Games and World-Building’. Hicksville. http://www.hicksville.co.nz/PerfectPlanet.htm.
Ibn al Rabin. 2013. Lentement aplati par la consternation. Geneva: Atrabile.
Jakobson, Roman. 1960. ‘Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics’. In Style in Language, edited by Thomas Albert Sebeok, 350–77. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kochalka, James. 2001. Perfect Planet & Other Stories. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions.
McCloud, Scott. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Perennial.
Medley, Linda. 2006. Castle Waiting. 1st ed. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics.
O’Toole, Michael. 2010. The Language of Displayed Art. 2nd ed. London; New York: Routledge.
Ogden, C. K., I. A. Richards, Bronislaw Malinowski, F. G. Crookshank, and J. P. Postgate. 1923. The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism. London; New York: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.; Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Pearson, Luke. 2010. Hildafolk. London: Nobrow Ltd.
Sfar, Joann. 2002. Harmonica. Paris: L’Association.
Spiegelman, Art. 2003. The Complete Maus: Graphic Novel. London: Penguin.
Stockwell, Peter. 2002. Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction. London; New York: Routledge.
Tan, Shaun. 2007. The Arrival. London: Hodder Children’s Books.
Thompson, Craig. 2004. Carnet De Voyage. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions.
Trondheim, Lewis. 2004. Carnet de bord 2002–2003. Paris: L’Association.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davies, P.F. (2019). The Logical Structures of Comics: Hypotaxis, Parataxis and Text Worlds. In: Comics as Communication. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29722-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29722-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29721-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29722-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)