BOBC |
Resource type: Book Chapter Language: en: English DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-30116-3_7 BibTeX citation key: Veith2020 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: "From Hell", Campbell. Eddie, Crime comics, Disability, Intermediality, Moore. Alan, United Kingdom Creators: Eckhoff-Heindl, Sina, Veith Publisher: Springer VS (Wiesbaden) Collection: Spaces Between: Gender, Diversity, and Identity in Comics |
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Abstract |
Focusing on how Joseph Merrick, also known as 'The Elephant Man', is depicted in Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's comic From Hell, this contribution follows a twofold approach. First, it shows how From Hell makes use of the medium-specific possibilities of comics in depicting Merrick's speech impairment and how this stylistic repertoire is used to turn disability into agency. Despite his underprivileged position within the storyworld, the depiction of his disability increases his individuality on the discourse level and emphasises the symbolic significance of the episodes in which he appears. Second, this contribution focuses on the comic's critical depiction of the normalising and authoritative force of media. By referencing a corpus of previous mediations of Merrick's life, the comic highlights the necessarily intermedial context within which such depictions of him are situated, thus revealing 'The Elephant Man' as a composite media figure.
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