만화 서사의 잠재성: 『워치맨』을 중심으로

Abstract

Examining the relation between narrative and literature, scholars in narrative theory have cited Roland Barthes’s article that was published in 1966. Against a dominant ambience under which academics at large attempted to find a master narrative form mainly within the literary radius of modern novels, Barthes argues the ubiquity of narrative, such as within myths, movies, fables, stained-glass windows as well as novels. Among diverse art media in which stories are produced and interpreted, this article examines how writers form narratives out of the comics medium. Despite its commercial popularity and established readership in the twentieth century, comics have not been seriously researched by scholars in general. In order to discuss why reading comics has not been settled down as a serious study, I will briefly explain the history of comics in twentieth century United States. I will then discuss “gaps” as a narrative term to explain the ways in which readers bring up stories out of the comics medium. Finally, reading Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986) as a case study, I will claim that comics are an appropriate medium to represent diverse topics modern subjects experience. Studying comics is important particularly when narrative analysis turns its interest from literary texts to multimodal media such as films or computer-mediated genres.