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Resource type: Book Chapter Language: en: English DOI: 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734423.003.0015 BibTeX citation key: Sattler2010 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: "Building Stories", Memoria, USA, Ware. Chris Creators: Ball, Kuhlman, Sattler Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi (Jackson) Collection: The Comics of Chris Ware. Drawing is a Way of Thinking |
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Abstract |
Cartoonists are aware of how comics can be easily forgotten, and thus have addressed “memory” as a central trope for discussing how their medium works, not only on the page but also in the minds of readers and creators. For example, Scott McCloud has argued that the power of cartooning stems from a mimetic similarity between the iconography of comic art and the contents of human memory. Chris Ware has also formalized the notion that “comics is about memory.” This chapter examines how memory is constructed in his comic strip “Building Stories,” focusing on the interplay between episodic, experiential, and narrative memory. It argues that memory is central to Ware’s comics, in which it is formally anatomized and re-encoded as a “feeling.” The chapter discusses remembering as a felt experience and how it resonates with Ware’s assertions about his artwork and its relation to readers’ psychological states. It also considers Ware’s central techniques for representing remembering in the 2003 strip titled “Paper Dolls.”
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