Comics as communication: a functional approach

Table of contents

1.Introduction
Communicating in Comics
Comics as Communicative Action
`Narrative Drawing'
Language and Comics
Models of Comics
Ut Pictura Poesis? Comics as Resources for Meaning-Making
Three Problems of Comics Expression
The Imagetext as Utterance
Linguistic Approaches to Comics
A Functional Approach to Graphic Narrative
On the Nature of the `System' in Comics Texts
Guide to the Book
Summary
References

2.Prelude: `Animating' the Narrative in Abstract Comics
Introduction
Comics and Abstraction
`Comics'
`Abstract'
`Animate'
`Narrative'
Conclusion

3.Representing Processes in Graphic Narrative
Four Approaches to Rendering the Process
Participants Imply Processes: Composition
Difference Leads to Implicature: McCloud's `Invisible Art'
Abstract Line: The `Lexicon of Comicana'
Verb Supply: `Blending' Words and Pictures
Contents note continued: Six Classes of Process Types
Processes Rendered by Composition
Implicature of Processes by Difference
Rendering Processes with Abstract Line
Verb Supply to Specify Processes
Applications
Mapping Theories and Genres
The `Comics Zone' and Prototypicality

4.Games Comics Play: Interpersonal Interaction in Graphic Narrative
Relation to Pragmatic Approach
Halliday's Model
Kress and van Leeuwen's Interpretation
A Practical Reinterpretation
Interactions with the Reader: `Games Comics Play'
Giving Information: Making `Statements'
Spot the Difference
Where's Wally? (or, Wimmelbook)
Rebus
Demanding Information: Setting `Questions'
Questionnaire
Caption Competition
Spot the Ball
Join the Dots
Colouring In
Demanding Goods-and-Services: Instructions and Actions
Mental Action
Jigsaw
Physical Action
Contents note continued: Giving Goods-and-Services: What Do Comics Offer?
Summary: Games Comics Play

5.Abstraction and the Interpersonal in Graphic Narrative
Halliday's Two-Part Interpersonal Function
Mood, Modality, Modalisation and Modulation
Appraisal
Abstraction as a Set of Clines
What Abstraction Is
What Abstraction Is Not
Summary: Resources for Modalisation
Application
Thompson: Blankets
Koch: The Art of the Possible
Gipi: Vois comme ton ombre s'allonge
Pedrosa: Portugal
Personal Work
Colour and Metafunction
Functions of the Abstract Enclosure

6.Cohesion and the Textuality of Comics
What Makes Comics One Text Rather Than Many?
Other Treatments of Cohesion
Textual Organisation in the Image
Cohesion and Textual Organisation in Picture Books
Treatments of Cohesion in Comics
Halliday's Model of Meaning-Making
Contents note continued: A Textual Model for Comics: Structural
Thematic Structure
Information Structure
A Textual Model for Comics: Cohesive
Four Comics Cohesions
Phoricity
Breakdown of the Cohesive Categories
Preliminary Table of Cohesions
Mapping Cohesion to the Ideational Metafunction
Mapping Cohesion to the Interpersonal Metafunction

7.The Logical Structures of Comics: Hypotaxis, Parataxis and Text Worlds
The Clause and the `Cluster'
Ranks
Structures of Narrative: Paratactic
And
-so
-Then
Reading Order
Cohn's Branching Structure
Chavanne's Subdivisions
Clusters and Reading
Parataxis and Hypotaxis
Expansion and Projection
Type of Expansion
Hypotaxis and Rankshifting
Projection
Text World Theory
Example: Carnet de Voyage
`Phatic Space'
Modalisation and Text-Worlds
Example: The Red Sea Sharks
Contents note continued: The Arrival: Parataxis and Hypotaxis in Silent Comics
Maus: Classic Metalepsis
Lentement Aplati par la Consternation: Comics as Utterances
Castle Waiting: From Word Balloons to Panels
Logicomix: The Priority of Logical Relations

8.Coda: Metaphor, Magic and Making Meanings
From Metonymy to Metaphor
Three Types of Metonymy in Comics Images
Metaphor: From Concrete to Abstract
Grammatical Metaphor
Grammaticalisation
Towards a Visual Metaphor
Close Readings
Phoebe Gloeckner: A Periodic Fantasy
Mike Mignola: Pancakes

9.Conclusion
Models and Mappings
Comics as an `Utterance'
Comparison of Models
Summary: Making Meanings with Comics
References.

This book explores how comics function to make meanings in the manner of a language. It outlines a framework for describing the resources and practices of comics creation and readership, using an approach that is compatible with similar descriptions of linguistic and multimodal communication.

The approach is based largely on the work of Michael Halliday, drawing also on the pragmatics of Paul Grice, the Text World Theory of Paul Werth and Joanna Gavins, and ideas from art theory, psychology and narratology. This brings a broad Hallidayan framework of multimodal analysis to comics scholarship, and plays a part in extending that tradition of multimodal linguistics to graphic narrative.

https://www.palgrave.com/in/book/9783030297213