"What is a Graphic Novel? (Part II)": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the visual aspects of graphic narratives, using Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' as an example. It introduces five key terms for analysis: comic panels, gutters, bleeds, speech bubbles, and captions. The script discusses how these elements, including the juxtaposition of past and present, contribute to the narrative's complexity and invites viewers to interpret their meanings, emphasizing the reader's role in engaging with and completing the story.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script discusses the unique juxtaposition of images and text in graphic narratives, emphasizing their interplay in conveying the story.
- 🔍 It delves into the visual aspects of graphic narratives, introducing five key terms essential for analyzing their form, using 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman as an example.
- 🐭 'Maus' portrays Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, and Poles as pigs, raising questions about the function of this symbolic representation.
- 🎨 The concept of comic panels is introduced as the basic unit of time in a graphic narrative, with different styles like bordered and unbordered panels to distinguish between different time settings.
- 🤔 The script encourages viewers to consider why certain images are divided into panels rather than presented as a single image, prompting deeper analysis of the artist's choices.
- 🌐 'Gutters' are the spaces between panels, and 'bleeds' occur when elements of a panel extend into these spaces, creating visual continuity or emphasis.
- 💬 Speech bubbles are used for direct dialogue from characters, while captions provide narration or context, often placed near the panel border to avoid image distraction.
- 📐 The script highlights the importance of recognizing and analyzing visual narrative features like panels, gutters, bleeds, speech bubbles, and captions for a complex understanding of graphic narratives.
- 🧩 In a specific passage from 'Maus', the use of varying panel sizes, character appearances in gutters, and repeated panels with differences are noted as sophisticated narrative techniques.
- 💭 The placement of speech bubbles and captions in 'Maus' is pointed out as a significant narrative choice that can influence the reader's interpretation.
- 🔑 The script concludes by inviting viewers to engage with the text, find their meanings, and participate in the conversation that both the textual and visual narratives of 'Maus' initiate.
Q & A
What is a central question of the text in the video?
-The central question of the text is the function of the juxtaposition between the textual and visual narratives in graphic narratives, specifically in Art Spiegelman's 'Maus'.
What is the significance of the term 'juxtaposition' in the context of graphic narratives?
-Juxtaposition in graphic narratives refers to the way images and text operate side by side, highlighting both differences and similarities between the visual and textual elements of the story.
What role does the graphic narrative 'Maus' play in the video?
-'Maus' serves as an example to illustrate the terms and concepts discussed in the video, such as comic panels, gutters, bleeds, speech bubbles, and captions.
What are the basic units of time in a graphic narrative?
-The basic units of time in a graphic narrative are the comic panels, which segment the chain of events into discrete units.
Why does Spiegelman choose to have bordered and unbordered panels in 'Maus'?
-Spiegelman uses bordered panels for Vladek's past experiences in Auschwitz and unbordered panels for the present, helping to distinguish between the two time settings.
What is the purpose of separating a larger image into discrete panels?
-Separating a larger image into discrete panels allows the artist to control the pacing, focus, and narrative flow, as well as to convey specific meanings through the arrangement.
What is the term used for the space between panels in a graphic narrative?
-The space between panels is called a 'gutter', which can sometimes be used creatively to create effects like 'bleeds'.
What is a 'bleed' in the context of graphic narratives?
-A 'bleed' occurs when an element from one panel extends into the gutter, creating a visual continuity or effect that spans across panels.
What are the two kinds of words that appear in panels of a graphic narrative?
-The two kinds of words are direct dialogue spoken by characters, placed in speech bubbles, and narration spoken by a narrator, placed in captions.
How does the placement of speech bubbles and captions contribute to the narrative?
-The placement of speech bubbles and captions can guide the reader's attention, provide context, and avoid distracting from the images, contributing to the overall narrative flow and understanding.
What does the video encourage viewers to do with their observations of the graphic narrative's formal features?
-The video encourages viewers to engage in the process of interpretation, finding their own meanings in the passages and entering into a conversation with the narrative.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Graphic Narratives Analysis
This paragraph introduces the topic of graphic narratives, focusing on the interplay between images and text. It highlights the use of Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' as a case study to explore visual storytelling elements. The narrative juxtaposes the experiences of Vladek, a Holocaust survivor, with symbolic animal representations of different groups involved. The central question of the function of this juxtaposition is posed, but the focus shifts to the visual aspects of the narrative, specifically comic panels, which are the basic units of time in graphic narratives. The paragraph also touches on the distinction between past and present narratives through bordered and unbordered panels.
🖌️ Artistic Techniques in Graphic Narratives
This section delves into the visual techniques used in graphic narratives, such as gutters and bleeds, which are spaces between panels that can be creatively manipulated for various effects. The 'bleed' is exemplified by a character's emotion extending beyond the panel border into the gutter. Additionally, the paragraph discusses speech bubbles and captions, two types of textual elements in panels that serve different narrative purposes. Speech bubbles are used for direct dialogue, while captions provide narration or context. The importance of recognizing these features for a deeper analysis of graphic narratives is emphasized.
🔍 Analyzing 'Maus': A Sophisticated Passage
This paragraph provides an in-depth analysis of a specific passage from 'Maus', illustrating the use of various visual narrative techniques. It discusses the unconventional panel sizes, the use of a 'bleed' where characters appear in the gutter, and the repetition of panels with significant differences to challenge the linear progression of time. The placement of speech bubbles and captions is also examined for its potential impact on interpretation. The paragraph concludes by encouraging viewers to engage with these observations and find personal meanings in the narrative, emphasizing the reader's role in completing the story.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Graphic Narratives
💡Juxtaposition
💡Comic Panels
💡Gutters
💡Bleeds
💡Speech Bubbles
💡Captions
💡Interpretation
💡Maus
💡Visual Narrative
💡Textual Narrative
Highlights
Graphic narratives often juxtapose images and text, highlighting differences and similarities between the textual and visual narratives.
The video delves deeper into the visual aspects of graphic narratives, focusing on 5 key terms for proper analysis.
Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' is used as an example to illustrate the terms, telling the story of Vladek, a prisoner at Auschwitz.
The juxtaposition of the textual story of Vladek's experiences with the visual narrative depicting different groups as animals raises central questions about its function.
Comic panels are the basic unit of time in graphic narratives, with artists choosing between bordered or unbordered styles.
Spiegelman uses bordered panels for Vladek's past and unbordered for the present, distinguishing between the two time settings.
The decision to separate a larger image into discrete panels can provide insight into the meaning and function of comic panels.
Gutters are the spaces between panels, while bleeds occur when elements extend beyond the panel border into the gutter.
Speech bubbles contain direct dialogue from characters, usually with a tail pointing to the speaker.
Captions provide narration and crucial information, often attached to the panel border to avoid image distraction.
Recognizing features like panels, gutters, bleeds, speech bubbles, and captions is essential for analyzing graphic narratives.
In a sophisticated passage from 'Maus', the use of varying panel sizes, bleed, and unconventional panel progression challenges traditional narrative techniques.
Spiegelman's placement of speech bubbles and captions in 'Maus' is a key aspect of the narrative's visual storytelling.
The formal features of 'Maus' invite readers to engage in interpretation and find their own meanings in the narrative.
Both the textual and visual narratives of 'Maus' tell a powerful story that requires reader participation to complete.
Transcripts
In last week’s video, we discussed a curious feature of graphic narratives, namely, the
fact that the images and text in these stories often operate in juxtaposition with one another,
calling attention to differences as well as to similarities between the textual and visual
narratives.
In this video, I want to dive a little deeper into the VISUAL side of graphic narratives
and give you the 5 most common terms you’ll need to properly analyze their form.
We’ll be using Art Spiegelman’s graphic narrative Maus to illustrate these terms.
Maus tells the story of Art’s father, Vladek, who was a prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration
camp during the second world war.
As you would expect from last week’s video, throughout this graphic narrative, the textual
story of Vladek’s experiences is placed in juxtaposition with the visual narrative,
which depicts Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, and Poles as pigs.
A central question, of course, is what is the function of this strange juxtaposition?
There are many ways to answer this question, and I encourage you to give it some thought
(it is THE central question of the text).
However, in this lesson, I want to put that question aside and look at the details of
Spiegelman’s visual work.
First up: comic panels.
In this passage from Maus, you’ll notice that Spiegelman has segmented the chain of
events into six discrete panels.
These panels constitute the basic unit of time in a graphic narrative.
Artists can choose to make their panels bordered or unbordered, and Spiegelman here has chosen
to leave the panels where he is speaking to his father in the present unbordered while
Vladek’s past experiences in Auschwitz are bordered.
This decision helps us to distinguish between the two time settings—past and present—that
are also juxtaposed with one another here.
You might have noticed that the second, third, fourth, and fifth panels in this passage can,
with a little imagination, be made to form a single image, and you might wonder why Spiegelman
has separated out this larger image into discrete panels.
Asking this question (and trying to answer it for yourself) will give you greater insight
into how a comic panel works and what meaning Spiegelman’s decision might be conveying
here.
Next up: gutters and bleeds.
Artists usually leave some space between the panels of their visual narratives.
That space is called a “gutter.”
While most of the time, gutters cleanly separate out one panel from another, graphic artists
will sometimes play around with this space.
In the panels you see here, for example, Artie’s shock in the left panel extends beyond its
border and into gutter between the two panels.
That effect is called a “bleed” and can also be used to a variety of effects.
Finally: speech bubbles and captions.
In graphic narratives, there are usually two kinds of words that appear in panels—direct
dialogue spoken by characters, and narration spoken by a narrator.
Whenever a character speaks, his or her words are placed into what are called speech bubbles,
which usually contain a tail directing us to the character who is speaking.
When the narrator wants to offer crucial information on the images depicted in the visual narrative,
their words are placed into what are called captions, which are usually, but not always,
attached to a border of a panel to avoid distracting from the images.
Panel, Gutter, Bleed, Speech Bubble, Caption.
If you can recognize these features of visual narratives, you’ll be well on your way to
thinking about and writing about graphic narratives in a complex manner.
Let’s try to put them all together in this disturbing and formally sophisticated passage
from Maus.
You’ll notice that there are five panels in this passage of varying sizes.
You’ll also notice that Artie and Vladek appear in the gutter between the fourth and
fifth panels and seem to hover above these panels in a strange kind of bleed.
You’ll see that the third and fourth panels repeat one another with some crucial differences,
and thus break from the convention of moving forward in time from panel to panel.
Finally, you’ll notice some very strange and interesting decisions that Spiegelman
has made based upon where he chooses to place his speech bubbles and captions.
So, what are we to do with these observations?
Well, now we can play around with what they might mean through a process we call interpretation.
I have my thoughts on what these formal features of Maus’s visual narrative are doing, but
rather than tell you them, I invite you to find your own meanings in these passages.
Maus has a powerful story to tell us through both its textual narrative and its visual
narrative, but like all narratives, it requires you, the reader, to enter into the conversation
to complete the story.
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