|
BOBC |
 |
 |
 |
|
Earle, Harriet E. H. "Comics and the Chronotope: Time-Space Relationships in Traumatic Sequential Art." HARTS and Minds 1. 2 2013. Accessed 11Jun. 2014. <http://media.wix.com/ug ... aa4390bb478863d24d6.pdf>. Added by: joachim (6/11/14, 10:43 PM) Last edited by: joachim (4/17/16, 9:48 AM) |
 |
| Resource type: Web Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed BibTeX citation key: Earle2013 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "The ’Nam", Bachtin. Michail M., Freud. Sigmund, Groensteen. Thierry, Murray. Doug, Space, Trauma, USA, War Creators: Earle Collection: HARTS and Minds |
Views: 4/1333
|
| Attachments | URLs http://media.wix.c ... 0bb478863d24d6.pdf |
| Abstract |
|
The comics form demands a readership that is aware of the complex time-space relationships that are at play in each narrative. Unlike film, in which each frame of action displaces the previous one to exist in the same physical space, the comics form allows all of the narrative action to be displayed at once, with each panel inhabiting its own space. The nature of the layout gives a huge amount of responsibility in creating the timescale of the narrative to the reader. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the ‘chronotope’ is an excellent lens to use when examining the relationship between time and space in comics. On the most basic level, the chronotope is the relationship between time and space that becomes artistically visible in linguistic and literary discourse – something that, as I have already stated, is conveyed at its visual extreme in comics. Bakhtin argues that the chronotopic relationship within the text is crucial to the construction of the narrative as a whole. Though not citing Bakhtin directly, theoretician Thierry Groensteen’s work on spatio-topia in comics displays strong similarities. He argues that comics is a form dependent on two concepts: ‘arthrology’; the relationship between the ‘joints’ of the panels and how each individual panel relates to those preceding and following it, and quadrillage; the precise layout of the page and the movement of the reader’s eye across the page. His work, like Bakhtin’s, suggests that the relationship between time and space is ‘indissoluble’ and central to the narrative flow. This article looks at how this spatio-temporal relationship is affected when dealing with a traumatic narrative. Trauma disrupts the sense of time and personal chronology of those it affects. Indeed, many of the most dramatic and commonly reported symptoms of a traumatic rupture relate to the individual’s construction of time, including flashbacks, repetitive nightmares, catatonia (which in effect ‘pauses’ the individual and removes them from the forward movement of time) and personal response mechanisms (either hyper-vigilance or extreme psychological numbing). I use Freud’s theories to construct a definition of trauma and its temporal symptoms in relation to the narrative form. The crux of this article is this: If the time-space relationship is pivotal to the construction of the comics form, how does it change under the stresses of a traumatic narrative?
Added by: joachim Last edited by: joachim |