Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Home
Home archive
Narration in Comics
Author: Pascal Lefvre
Published: August 2000
Abstract (E): Cognitive narratology states that the reader arrives with
schemata, cognitive frames for a meaningful organisation of various interrelated
concepts, based on previous experiences. However, the reader is also cued to
perform a specific activity by the artwork. Reading is a dynamic and continuous
process. Models, the basis of the reader's schemata, assumptions, inferences
and hypotheses, are set up by both extrinsic and intrinsic norms. Comics
readers use similar constructive procedures as in constructing reality from reallife perceptions, and narration should be understood as the organisation of a set
of cues used in constructing a story. The close reading of a Flemish 1947-comic
strip shows that even such a simple one-page gag can implement various
strategies and formal organisations besides pure narration. There are many
aspects and elements without any strict narrative function in comics. The whole
of a narrative is far more than the sum of its events.
Keywords: narration, Vandersteen, schemata
1. Introduction
During the last 20 years a small but growing number of narratologists (Bordwell,
1985; Reid, 1992; Fludernik, 1996; Herman, 1997) have stressed the role of the
reader and the way a 'text' engages this reader in semantic exchanges. In the
same way I shall focus on the way comics cue the reader to a specific reading
through their form and how readers are able to activate relevant categories of
knowledge, with or without explicit textual clues to guide them (Herman, 1997).
Certain concepts from cognitive psychology might help us with the description of a
reader's understanding of a graphic narrative. In his interesting book Moving
Pictures, Torben Grodal (1997) explained the close links between narrative and
cognitive-emotional activation. He argues that mental models and image-schemata
can provide more general descriptions of the cognitive and emotional role of the
human body than psychoanalysis or psychosemiotics can (Grodal, 1997: 282). In
this study I will try to show some of the assumptions, inferences, hypotheses,
schemata the reader needs to activate a comic and how a comic can cue the reader
to perform a specific activity. From this perspective comics don't differ that much
from other media as film, novel, theatre... Besides, I shall also briefly analyse how
comics can deviate from the proposed definition of narration, where narration
begins and where it ends.
My definition only describes the most essential characteristics of narration. For me,
the core definition of a narrative is: 'A formal system that the reader interprets as
a interesting representation of a series of logically and chronologically related
events, caused or experienced by actors.' It is a formal system because it is a set
of elements that depend on and affect one another. Form is the overall system of
relations the reader perceives in a comic. The reader has access to the formal
system of the comic through his visual sense. In comics (or other narratives)
meanings are constructed by the reader's interpretation of the formal system
(drawings and texts). His unifying or framing act of perception and interpretation
activates the comic. The events themselves are not included in the narrative, only
the way they are represented (drawn). If the reader does not perceive the
representation as interesting, he would not continue his interpretation and reading
activity. An event can we define as something which happens or develops over a
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
2. Reading a comic
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
Relying on basic skills and expectations, the average reader should not have any
serious problems in understanding what is going on. The images and the text give
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
4. Nonnarrative aspects
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
5. References
BAETENS, Jan & LEFEVRE, Pascal. 1993. Pour une lecture moderne de la bande
dessine. Bruxelles: Centre Belge de la Bande Dessine.
BAL, Mieke. 1997. Narratology Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Second
Edition, University of Toronto Press.
BORDWELL, David. 1985. Narration in the Fiction Film. London: Methuen.
BORDWELL, David, & THOMPSON, Kristin. 1986. Film Art, An Introduction, Second
Edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
FLUDERNIK, Monika. 1996. Towards a 'Natural' Narratology. London: Routledge.
GRODAL, Torben. 1997. Moving Pictures, A New Theory of Film Genres, Feelings,
and Cognition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
GROENSTEEN, Thierry. 1988. "La narration comme supplment." In: Groensteen,
Thierry (ed.). 1988. Bande Dessine, Rcit et Modernit. Paris: Futuropolis &
CNBDI. pp. 45-69.
GROENSTEEN, Thierry. 1999. Systme de la bande dessine. Paris: PUF.
HABERLANDT, Karl. 1994. Cognitive Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
HERMAN, David. 1997. "Scripts, Sequences, and Stories: Elements of a
Postclassical Narratology." In: PMLA, vol. 112, number 5, october 1997, p. 10461059.
LACEY, Nick. 1998. Image and Representation, Key Concepts in Media Studies. New
York: St. Martin's Press.
LEFEVRE, Pascal. 1999. "Recovering Sensuality in Comic Theory". In: International
Journal of Comic Art. Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1999.
MATTHIJS, Koen. 1988. Belgoscope, De Belgen, de Vlamingen en de Walen. Wie ze
zijn. Waar ze wonen en hoe ze leven. Tielt: Lannoo/De Financieel Ekonomische
Tijd.
REID, Ian. 1992. Narrative exchanges. London: Routledge.
STERNBERG, Robert J. 1996. Cognitive Psychology. Forth Worth: Harcourt Brace
College Publishers.
VIDAL, Jean-Pierre. 1982. "La capture de l'imaginaire." In: VAUGHN-JAMES,
Martin. 1982. La Cage. Paris: Impressions Nouvelles, p. 185-199.
WILLATS, John. 1997. Art and Representation. New Principles in the Analysis of
Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Comics mentioned
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/pascallefevre.htm[08/12/2016 18:02:01]