Graphic Novels Research Articles

Health Literacy in Graphic Medicine: Medical Comics and Graphic Pathologies

Long ago a child left a dentist office with a comic book on the proper way to brush their teeth. Over time, so many have read comics telling tales of their favorite Marvel hero or what is next for Snoopy and his colleagues or the political scene depicted in a Doonesbury comic strip. Today comics and graphic novels with pictures that look like us center on health topics to get us through a pandemic, being a caring caregiver, eating properly and learning about climate change. It is cliché, but pictures can represent a thousand words, especially when the topics may be complicated, but the images are comfortable for the reader. This Health Literacy column will define graphic medicine with its comics and graphic pathograhics, the elements needed for these tools to create a meaningful health related resource and illustrate it with examples. After an assessment of the services and populations served, health science librarians can use these suggestions and examples for collection development in their medical libraries and/or consumer health collections. The Librarian may even be involved in creating a comic or graphic pathographic.

Changing Medium: The Contemporary Reception of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in Two Graphic Novels

A number of contemporary authors/artists have chosen not to “write back” vehemently to what they find problematic in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but to resort to a different medium and “rewrite” or adapt the novella as a graphic novel, as if the power of images could clarify the text for 21st-century readers. Changing medium and associating text and image enables them to underline the historical context, tackle elements in the stories that would otherwise remain largely unnoticed, and therefore problematize its ambiguities, as is the case in Anyango and Mairowitz’s Heart of Darkness (2010) and Au cœur des ténèbres. Librement adapté du roman de Joseph Conrad (Miquel and Godart, 2014). Changing medium allowed them to revisit both the colonial past and the meaning of a novella like Heart of Darkness since both graphic novels perform an implicit criticism of the source text and serve to reexamine its controversial aspects in the 21st century. Interestingly, in one case it implies the spectral presence of the novelist, Joseph Conrad as if, in a postcolonial context, a text could not be separated from the figure of its author.

Mapping the Story of Manga: Graphic Novels and the Cultural Boom in Japan and World

Manga are circulated in graphic novel format as printed Japanese comic books. They are famous Japanese graphic novels or comic books. A popular form of literature, read by people of different age groups. They certainly provide visual as well as linguistic examples of Japanese culture. They deal with a number of genres like fantasy, romance, supernatural, erotica, action, psychological, science fiction and many more to include. This paper deals with manga-culture, its evolution and, cultural and global aspects attached to it. It highlights the educational element associated with manga. It further discusses about the prospects of manga being a form of cross-cultural literature and, how influential it is not only in Japan but also worldwide.

Representing Sexual Assault and Trauma in Una’s Becoming Unbecoming and Courtney Summers’s All the Rage

The paper aims to explore the representation of sexual violence against women in two different mediums and to demonstrate the relevance of graphic novels by comparing and contrasting the graphic novel of Una’s Becoming Unbecoming with the traditional novel of Courtney Summers’s All the Rage. Through the application of theory of Intermediality, the paper aims to unearth the sexual violence faced by women in selected texts. The author of the graphic narrative employs language and visuals to portray the incidents and aftereffects of sexual assault and trauma. In contrast, the traditional novel presents the problem of sexual violence through stand-alone text. The research paper’s focal point is that graphic narrative thematizes intermediality and conveys the issue of sexual assault in a way that is far more effective than a traditional novel in terms of raising awareness. In Becoming Unbecoming, text and pictures relate to each other and communicate meaning in numerous ways, but in All the Rage, the text is given meaning through language only.

Analysis of the current state of evidence regarding the relationship between reading, writing, and digital literacy skills in K-12 education: A systematic review

This paper aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of studies on the relationship between reading and writing skills and digital literacy at the K-12 level, following the PRISMA statement. The analysis included examining subjects, aims, digital materials, methodologies, and learning outcomes of relevant studies. Data were collected from the Web of Science database based on specified inclusion criteria. In total, 23 empirical studies were analyzed: 6 articles exploring the relationship between writing and digital literacy skills, and 17 articles examining the relationship between reading and digital literacy skills. The relationship between reading skills and digital literacy was explored in several contexts: the impact of digital texts on reading processes, comprehension and interpretation skills, effects of digital technologies on traditional reading methods, the influence of digital graphic novels on reading processes, and early literacy education. Findings indicated a relationship between writing skills and digital literacy, covering topics such as digital technologies in traditional writing, critical discourse analysis, writing skills in new media, and writing practices. Various digital tools were employed to enhance reading, writing, and digital literacy skills, including digital tablets, computer software, comics, educational videos, e-books, picture books, digital novels, voice recorders, and mobile devices. The majority of studies utilized qualitative and mixed methods; no studies employed quantitative methods. Overall, these findings highlight the interplay between reading, writing, and digital literacy skills at the K-12 level, providing a foundation for future research.

Bibliographic Metaparatexts and the Author Function of Librarians

ABSTRACT: Through subject heading analysis of a popular culture franchise’s bibliographic records across its transmedia, library catalogers as well as metadata librarians are shown as authors of impactful metaparatext. In terms of reception studies, metaparatext intervenes in readers’ receptions of sought narratives. In this study, the Hellraiser franchise is chosen for rich subject analysis, providing one narrative mediated in books, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and graphic novels temporally across decades and assigned descriptive metadata, such as subject headings, by librarians. The subject analysis produces an accumulated narrative of metaparatext authored by cataloging and metadata librarians that attempts to describe the “aboutness” of the narrative text from the satellite positionality of bibliographic records—outside of the text, a paratext of aboutness. When it is acknowledged that librarians’ bibliographic services fulfill a paratextual author function in the process of text-to-reader reception, value is added to the field of bibliographic librarianship, and its impact on theories of reception and narratology is established. In this study, the analysis of Hellraiser ’s accumulated narrative produces a three-narrative structure, that of the patron’s narrative, the cataloger’s narrative, and the popularity and audience narrative. These three narratives mirror the messaging and reception process exhibited in the rhetorical triangle, producing the context for reader, author, and historicity or “the where” of reception. In situating bibliographic metadata as impactful metaparatext that intervenes in a reader’s reception of a narrative, this paper extends the research of library experts Jack Andersen, Rachel Sagner Buurma, Jon Shaw, and Roswitha Skare in its inclusion of reception studies and subject analysis lens of accumulated narrativity.

Las adaptaciones literarias a novela gráfica como recurso didáctico: propuesta para un análisis cualitativo

The aim of this paper is to study literary adaptations of classic works to the graphic novel. In addition, a number of criteria are set to determine the validity and suitability of a specific work as a didactic resource. First, we start from the success of the genre in recent years, both among the general public and in the educational sphere. Second, we offer an overview of the adaptations of classics into graphic novels and their relevance in the classroom. Finally, we present a list of criteria for an objective and exhaustive analysis of each of the works. The purpose is to offer the educational community a practical tool to analyze and qualitatively evaluate a given work before proceeding to carry out a project.

La bande dessinée dans les manuels scolaires Tunisiens : étude de son rôle dans l’apprentissage linguistico-culturel

Comics in Tunisian School Textbooks: Study of its role in linguistic and cultural learning
 Comics, also referred to as graphic novels, have enjoyed widespread popularity as a form of entertainment for people of all ages over many years. However, in recent times, they have garnered recognition not only as a source of entertainment but also as an effective tool for teaching and learning foreign languages and cultures. In Tunisia, where French is taught as a foreign language (FLE), school textbooks play a pivotal role in foreign language and cultural education. The content of these textbooks is expected to align with specific pedagogical and cultural standards. Consequently, the inclusion of comics in FLE textbooks in Tunisia prompts inquiries into their appropriateness concerning pedagogical objectives and adherence to Tunisian cultural norms. To address these inquiries, a study was undertaken to scrutinize the role of comics as a tool for linguistic and cultural learning in Tunisian FLE textbooks. The study comprised two main parts. The initial part concentrated on diverse modalities of incorporating comics into foreign language teaching and learning. Previous research has demonstrated that comics serve as effective tools for imparting various language skills and cultural aspects of a foreign language. They facilitate the acquisition of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, while also aiding in the understanding of cultural facets, such as social interactions, customs, and traditions. Moreover, comics contribute to creating an enjoyable and interactive learning environment, fostering critical thinking skills among learners. The second part of the study delved into the linguistic and cultural messages conveyed by comics in Tunisian FLE textbooks, as well as their reception by learners. The analysis, conducted through an analytical and descriptive approach, sought to address the following questions: How are comics utilized in Tunisian FLE textbooks for linguistic and cultural learning? What cultural messages do they convey, and how are these messages perceived by learners? In conclusion, this study underscores the potential of integrating comics into Tunisian FLE textbooks as a potent tool for teaching foreign languages and cultures. Comics offer an engaging and interactive approach to improving language skills and deepening cultural understanding. Through the incorporation of comics into language education, educators can establish a dynamic learning environment that enhances learners' linguistic proficiency and cultivates a nuanced appreciation of diverse cultures.

Reflections of the Holocaust in the Graphic Novels The Boxer and Maus

Reflections of the Holocaust in the Graphic Novels The Boxer and Maus

Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Influence on Adrian Tomine’s Short-Story Cycle Killing and Dying

ABSTRACT Adrian Tomine’s Killing and Dying (2015) is one of the most celebrated graphic novels of the twenty-first century—although that genre designation is misleading inasmuch as the book is actually a short-story cycle composed of six seemingly autonomous short stories linked together by shared topics and motifs. This essay examines how Tomine achieves overall narrative unity despite the individual stories’ heterogeneous settings, plots, and characters. In particular, this analysis examines how Tomine employs the theme of “striving and failing” to link the texts: each entry is united by a character’s need to connect, to be seen, to be understood. Protagonists suffer from worries and fears they are unable to articulate, their anxieties rarely fully framed on the page. Additionally, this reading of Killing and Dying explores how Tomine sublimates the influence of 1960s manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi (1935–2015), whose work Tomine helped bring to English-speaking audiences after decades of neglect, in organizing the cycle.

Translation solutions used in the binary and intersemiotic translation of the graphic novel about the Marvel universe

The article discusses the key translation solutions that have been applied by translators in the binary and intersemiotic translation (film adaptation) of a graphic novel about the Marvel universe. The object of the study includes occasionalisms, substandard lexis and onomatopoeia in the graphic novel “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” as one of the most popular within the analyzed universe. Within the framework of the research, such linguistic methods as the continuous selection method, the contextual analysis method, the structural and semantic analysis method, the descriptive method, the comparative analysis method, the contrastive analysis method, as well as quantitative calculation methods are used. The authors conduct a comparative translation analysis of the translation and the original of the comics “X-Men: Battle of the Atom”, during which they identify occasionalisms and distribute them into certain thematic groups. The study highlights the main types of onomatopoeia typical of the English-language graphic novels. The calculation and analysis of translation solutions used in the transfer of onomatopes used in the comics into the Russian language are carried out. Attention is paid to the main types of stylistically substandard lexis – vulgarisms and swear words, which are also considered in terms of translation from English into Russian. When analyzing the transformations of the verbal component of a graphic novel in its intersemiotic translation (film adaptation), the authors focus on the occasional lexis, since in this type of translation only occasionalisms can have correspondences. The substandard lexis in the film adaptation is omitted, and when translating onomatopoeia, the verbal component is converted into the sound component of the film text. In the intersemiotic translation, only a part of the occasionalisms is preserved, which is conditioned by the reduction in the number of characters and significant locations.

In her hands: navigating [sexual] identity and gender roles in a Portuguese graphic novel for young adults by Joana Estrela

ABSTRACT Visual narratives, such as graphic novels and comic books, are powerful forms of literature that use verbal and pictorial modes, in intersemiotic complementarity, making them an effective tool to tackle social issues, namely to explore hidden or sensitive topics in a thought-provoking, entertaining, and inspiring way. This is the case in the last graphic novel published by a young Portuguese writer and illustrator for children and young adults, Joana Estrela, the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. In this study, then, we intend to focus on Raquel, the protagonist in Pardalita, who takes her future into her hands and ventures to navigate the waters of self-discovery, crossing prejudice and challenging gender role stereotypes. Through her theatre group, she enters a third space that promotes inclusivity and empowers individuals regardless of gender. By analysing the multimodality that characterises this book, we come to realise the synergistic and transformative potential that visual narratives hold.

ONOMOTOPEIA AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSIVENESS IN A GRAPHIC NOVEL: SOME NUANCES OF TRANSLATION

The article is devoted to onomatopoeia as a means of expressiveness in a graphic novel, to be precise, to the peculiarities of the translation of onomatopoeic words from French into Ukrainian. The purpose of the study is to find out the characteristic traits of onomatopoeia in a graphic novel and analyze its translation strategies, compiling a mini-dictionary of onomatopoeias (language pair French — Ukrainian). In the course of the research, it was found that the graphic novel relies on a purely visual and textual component. It is the visual accompaniment of colors, text and drawing style that helps to understand how to perceive onomatopoeia in context. Such an artistic tool as a speech bubble is also responsible for conveying the meaning of onomatopoeia, so the shape, size, and style of letters must be taken into account during interpretation. When working on the translation of onomatopoeia in graphic novels, it is necessary to rely on general linguistic knowledge, analyzing the type of onomatopoeia by origin (human sounds, animal sounds, nature sounds, sounds of objects) and the meaning of formative onomatopes for a more effective selection of analogues. At the same time, the process of translation is primarily a creative process, so it is impossible to offer a specific model of work on the text. Having studied the ways of translating onomatopoeia in a number of comics about Tintin (Hergé) and in “Persepolis” (Marjan Satrapi), we came to the conclusion that the translators used the following strategies: transcription / transliteration; partial adaptation (replacement of one or two letters); complete replacement of the onomatopoeic word with a word specific to the Ukrainian language; full replacement of the word with partial replacement of the meaning; replacing the onomatopoeia with the root of the corresponding verb. Common in translation practice is the addition and removal of certain elements (onomatopoeia included), which is generally not approved, but is not a drawback provided that the author’s intention is followed. Often the translator has to combine strategies to achieve an accurate and expressive result.

Effectiveness of Graphic Novels to Motivate Reading among ESL Learners: A Literature Review

Effectiveness of Graphic Novels to Motivate Reading among ESL Learners: A Literature Review

Health got graphic! The role of Graphic Medicine in unpacking autism

The paper brings together Graphic Medicine, namely the use of comics and graphic novels in the healthcare field, and Disability Studies to shed light on the contribution of the graphic medium to the social understanding of disability, focusing on the case of autism. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals and using graphic novels as a form of knowledge elicitation, the article shows both the strengths and the weaknesses of graphic materials as research and communication tools in the field of Autism scholarship. The two graphic novels considered have been efficient to portray the lived experiences of autistic people and to partially challenge the medical model of autism, even for healthcare professionals. Autism-related comics can contribute to the critical study of autism, by both giving ways of expression to autistic people, caregivers and promoting counter-narratives, like neurodiversity, among healthcare professionals.

„Comics making as a form of prayer?”. Komiksowa materialność na przykładzie komiksu Deserto / Nuvem Francisco Sousy Lobo


 
 
 
 Francisco Sousa Lobo (Portugal) touches on religious themes in many of his comics. In real life, he has been both for and against Catholics, and now he prefers to watch the world from above, sitting on a high comic book wall. In the split-book Deserto/Nuvem, which I propose to analyse in this article, he decides to create a reportage about the Catholic Carthusian order from Évora: in Deserto he presents a record of a week spent among monks, and Nuvem consists of 20 letters written to a monk. I would like to look at these comics in response to the question with which Pedro Moura concluded the Deserto/Nuvem review – “Comic-making as a form of prayer?” and through the concepts of the materiality of the comic book (Aaron Kashtan Between Pen and Pixel. Comics, Materiality, and the Book of the Future) and the performativity of the act of experiencing the comic book (Ian Hague Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels).
 
 
 

MILITARY FICTION FOR CHILDREN OF THE RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR AS A LITERARY FIELD

Background. The phenomenon of military fiction for children had been on the margin of independent Ukraine’s scientific and social discourses before the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Since 2014, writers and publishers have enhanced their activity in this area responding to the needs of the society, particularly to the necessity to explain to children in their language the processes they witness, to the desire to distract them from traumatic experiences or to use books as part of therapeutic intervention.
 Purpose. To arrange the processes occurring in the Ukrainian literary space and connected with military fiction for children in 2014-2023.
 Methods. The sociology of literature approaches have been utilized.
 Results. To the major formants of the literary field of children’s military fiction belong social discourse and information produced by its actants: writers, publishers, literary experts and critics, literary bloggers, online literary platform teams etc., as well as all those interested (parents, children, character prototypes, scholars who help interpret literary works and ensure their appropriate psychological and emotional reception) who are related to literary product interpretation and consumption. Publishing houses’ effort towards filling free genre niches switches to active discussion of children’s books’ therapeutic and awareness-raising role under warfare (how to write it to avoid harming the traumatized child, how to better arrange the reception process, what tips to give to parents). Writers who tell the children about war update textual and receptive strategies. Literary platforms (Barabooka, Chytomo etc.) run discussions and events. Public attention is sustained via interviews with publishers and writers, literature overviews, updating on social media the information about the authors who fight, volunteer, take part in events, meet with children. Children themselves try their hand at creating book-trailers, writing reviews etc. The publishers expand young readers’ access to their products: books (ranging from regular paper books for “young adults” to graphic novels, comics, picture books, words-free books), audiobooks as well as animated movies created on their basis.
 Conclusions and perspectives. Children’s war fiction has highlighted the angle of interdependence of literature and society, which is revealed in the cases of crisis and is connected with the social activity of the parties to the literary process. The use of sociology of literature techniques made it possible to analyze the impact of the literary field actants (writers, publishers, readers and all those interested) on the development of textual strategies, the interaction between literature and society, as well as to trace the match of literary texts to the social discourse and further on, to reflect on the impact of social development.

ON SOME ASPECTS OF GRAPHIC NOVELS OR «VISUAL NARRATIVES». FROM TEXT TRANSLATION TO INTERSEMIOTIC TRANSMUTATION

Background. Graphic novels as well as graphic novel translation process is reaching more interest of scientists from both proper linguistic and multidisciplinary point of view. Graphic novels provide the possibility to work with the abundant investigation corpus and also it provokes great interest for investigating its translation characteristics. It should be mentioned that the term translation here is used from a semiotic and intersemiotic perspectives as well as its cognitive and multimodal implementation.
 The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the methods for the translator to apply to be able to translate, to offer its proper transcreation.
 Methods. Procedures of the research are qualitative methods that involve observation over the corpus the investigation which is corpus of English versions of historical graphic novels, among which Persepolis by M. Satrapi, and its translations, selection of the examples of illustrative material, analysis of translation transformations used, application of the methods of intersemiotic and multimodal theories as well as some tools of cognitive linguistic theory thesis.
 Results. The present article deals with some aspects of graphic novels, its translation process and the result, from both proper linguistic and multidisciplinary point of view. The corpus of the investigation is the graphic novel Persepolis written by M. Satrapi, graphic novel English version and its published translations. It is described why graphic novels are analysed from point of view of semiotics, while its translation is considered to be realised in the intersemiotic framework.
 The term translation is used from a semiotic and intersemiotic perspectives as well as its cognitive and multimodal implementation is suggested in the article. It is disputed about the difference between terms translation and transcreation. Some special characteristics of inner and outer form of graphic novels have been given. It is further discussed the methods for the translator to apply to be able to translate, to offer its proper transcreation. It also challenges the scientific though to clarify the term translation in the case of translating graphic novel, and it asks many questions about the multimodal aspects of the trilogy – the author, the translator, the reader. Modulation is proved to be considered the main and universal method of translation. Illustrative examples are given.
 Discussion. One universal way of translating graphic novels is modulation, the translation shift, allowing to change the form with the sense unchanged. All the modalities should be taken into account while realizing translation of the one. From cognitive point of view graphic novel is the embodiment of cognitive metaphor and concepts blended inside one and the same narrative. As a perspective of the study it is suggested to further analyse the constraints of trilogy – the novel, its transmutation, the reader and the place with the role of every participant of a graphic novel creation defined and described.

Looking sideways

This article presents an overview of contemporary bibliomigrancy patterns of translated fiction from the province of Quebec to Sweden, between 2000 and 2020. Quebec and Sweden offer an interesting comparison, since French is considered a central language but the province of Quebec occupies a peripheral position in comparison with its Anglophone neighbours, whereas Swedish is considered a semi-peripheral language but Sweden occupies a central position in the Scandinavian subsystem. Drawing on theories on bibliomigrancy and polysystem, the article investigates 26 titles from the point of view of external translation history, focusing on the following questions: What was translated? When was it translated? Where was it translated? Who translated it? Why was it translated? The analysis shows that different genres, notably novels, picture books, and graphic novels, have been translated into Swedish during the investigated time frame, with different patterns regarding factors such as publication interval, translators, and translation subsidies. The increasing tendency of Quebecois titles appearing in Swedish follows the increasing trend of French as a source language in Sweden’s literary market, in contrast to the more even pace of translated literature into Swedish more generally. The results further suggest that a region’s language may have a more significant influence than its geopolitical position in the international market of translations.

Unnoticed Child from the Conflict Zone: A Study of Human Behaviour in Select Indian Graphic Novels

Children in conflict-affected regions face numerous obstacles that can substantially impact their cognitive and behavioural development. The purpose of this study is to examine how Indian Graphic Novels, specifically Malik Sajad’s Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir and Varud Gupta & Ayushi Rastogi’s Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love, depict the routine of children’s lives in conflict-prone regions. The selected novels effectively convey the lived experiences of the young protagonists and offer an original perspective on their struggles. Children who are deprived of a safe environment due to violence are frequently subjected to financial, sexual, psychological, and physical maltreatment, as well as rules and restrictions from their parents, teachers, and neighbours. The ecological system theory, which contends that a child’s environment affects their general behaviour, is employed in the study. It underlines the effects of living in a conflict zone on behaviour, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite the significant influence of parents, culture, and social norms, the study demonstrates that the behaviour of young protagonists living in conflict zones is strongly influenced by their environment (chronosystem). According to the analysis, conflict-related violence against children has become a significant threat to global development. While the number of children affected by the violent environment is unclear, it is evident that those confined to ‘home life’ in a combat zone are at a greater risk of abuse and trauma. The study emphasises the critical requirement for defending the legal rights of children living in conflict areas and giving them a secure environment. It places a strong focus on the value of social services, healthcare, and education in preserving and advancing children’s rights. The purpose of the study is to contribute to a greater understanding of human behaviour in the context of conflict and its potential long-term effects on the development of children. The need to create a just and peaceful world for all children is underlined in the study.