Skip to content
1981

Resisting Narrative Immersion

image of Resisting Narrative Immersion

The following chapter will discuss Chris Ware's work in terms of narrative immersion, which refers to the mental state of being absorbed in a storyworld and the capacity for being ‘carried away’ in the game of ‘make-believe’. Using Marie-Laure Ryan's taxonomy as a framework, this chapter will examine three main types of narrative immersion: spatial, temporal, and emotional. Rather than focusing on Ware's embrace of immersion, this chapter will take a negative approach, addressing his deliberate resistance towards fictional immersion. It should be noted that this resistance should not be interpreted as a complete rejection but rather a deliberate delay.

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

Resisting Narrative Immersion
Intellect , 233 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389494_14
/content/books/9781789389494.c13
/content/books/9781789389494.c13
Loading

Data & Media loading...

References

  1. Baetens, J. (2001), ‘New = old, old = new’, Electronic Book Review, 1 January, http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/webarts/graphic. Accessed 22 June 2012.
  2. Ball, D. M. (2010a), ‘Chris Ware's failures’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 45–61.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Ball, D. M. (2010b), ‘Comics against themselves: Chris Ware's graphic narratives as literature’, in P. Williams and J. Lyons (eds), The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 103–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Ball, D. M. and Kuhlman, M. B. (2010), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: UniversityPress of Mississippi.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Banita, G. (2010), ‘Chris Ware and the pursuit of slowness’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 177–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Barker, M. (1989), Comics: Ideology, Power, and the Critics, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Baroni, R. (2007), La tension narrative, Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Bartual, R. (2012), ‘Towards a panoptical representation of time and memory: Chris Ware, Marcel Proust and HenriBergson's “Pure Duration”’, Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art, 1:1, pp. 45–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Bernstein, C. (1987), Artifice of Absorption, Berkeley: Potes & Poets Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Bredehoft, T. A. (2006), ‘Comics architecture, multidimensionality, and time: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on earth’, MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52:4, pp. 869–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Cates, I. (2010), ‘Comics and the grammar of diagrams’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississipi.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Crary, J. (2001), Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle and Modern Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Gardner, J. (2012), Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Groensteen, T. (2011), Bande dessinée et narration: système de la bande dessinée 2 (‘Comics and narration: The system of comics 2’), Paris: Presses universitaires de France.253
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Hühn, P. (2009), ‘Event and eventfulness’, in P. Hühn (ed.), Handbook of Narratology, Berlin: Walter deGruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Hühn, P. (2010), Eventfulness in British Fiction, New York: De Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Keen, S. (2007), Empathy and the Novel, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Keen, S. (2011), ‘Fast tracks to narrative empathy: Anthropomorphism and dehumanization in graphic narratives’, SubStance, 40:1, pp. 135–55.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Keen, S. (2012), ‘Narrative empathy’, in P. Hühn, J. Pier, and W. Schmid, et al. (eds), The Living Handbook of Narratology, Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Narrative_Empathy. Accessed 3 July 2012.
  20. Marion, P. (1993), Traces en cases: travail graphique, figuration narrative et participation du lecteur, Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Merino, A. ([2003] 2005), ‘Chris Ware: (la secuencia circular): Ediciones Sinsentido’, in B. Peeters (ed.), Lire labande dessinée, vol. 530, Paris: Flammarion.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Peeters, B. (1998), Lire la bande dessinée, Paris: Flammarion.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Prager, B. (2003), ‘Modernism in the contemporary graphic novel: Chris Ware and the age of mechanical reproduction’, International Journal of Comic Art, 5:1, pp. 195–213.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Raeburn, D. (1999), ‘The smartest cartoonist on earth’, The Imp, 1:3, 4 July, https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5043029/the-smartest-cartoonist-on-earth-daniel-raeburn. Accessed 19 July 2023.
  25. Raeburn, D. (2004), Chris Ware, New Haven: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Ryan, M.-L. (2003), Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Samson, J. and Peeters, B. (2009), Chris Ware: la bande dessinée réinventée (‘Comics reinvented’), Paris: Les ImpressionsNouvelles.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Schmid, W. (2003), ‘Narrativity and eventfulness’, in T. Kindt and H. Müller (eds), What is Narratology?: Questions and Answers Regarding the Status of a Theory, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 17–33.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Walton, K. L. (1990), Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Ware, C. (2000), Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Ware, C. (2001), The Acme Novelty Library #15: The Big Book Of Jokes II, Seattle: Fantagraphics.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Ware, C. (2002), The Whitney Prevaricator, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (poster).
  33. Ware, C. (2006), Acme Novelty Library #17: ACME Novelty Library, Montrèal: Drawn & Quarterly.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Ware, C. (2007a), Acme Novelty Library #18, Montrèal: Drawn & Quarterly.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Ware, C. (2007b), The Acme Novelty Date Book: Sketches and Diary Pages in Facsimile, 1995–2002, Montréal and Enfield: Drawn and Quarterly.254
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Wolk, D. (2008), Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, Boston and New York: Da Capo Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Worden, D. (2010), ‘On modernism's ruins: The architecture of “Building Stories” and lost buildings’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 107–20.
     [Google Scholar]

References

  1. Baetens, J. (2001), ‘New = old, old = new’, Electronic Book Review, 1 January, http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/webarts/graphic. Accessed 22 June 2012.
  2. Ball, D. M. (2010a), ‘Chris Ware's failures’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 45–61.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Ball, D. M. (2010b), ‘Comics against themselves: Chris Ware's graphic narratives as literature’, in P. Williams and J. Lyons (eds), The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 103–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Ball, D. M. and Kuhlman, M. B. (2010), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: UniversityPress of Mississippi.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Banita, G. (2010), ‘Chris Ware and the pursuit of slowness’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 177–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Barker, M. (1989), Comics: Ideology, Power, and the Critics, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Baroni, R. (2007), La tension narrative, Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Bartual, R. (2012), ‘Towards a panoptical representation of time and memory: Chris Ware, Marcel Proust and HenriBergson's “Pure Duration”’, Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art, 1:1, pp. 45–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Bernstein, C. (1987), Artifice of Absorption, Berkeley: Potes & Poets Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Bredehoft, T. A. (2006), ‘Comics architecture, multidimensionality, and time: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on earth’, MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52:4, pp. 869–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Cates, I. (2010), ‘Comics and the grammar of diagrams’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississipi.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Crary, J. (2001), Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle and Modern Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Gardner, J. (2012), Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Groensteen, T. (2011), Bande dessinée et narration: système de la bande dessinée 2 (‘Comics and narration: The system of comics 2’), Paris: Presses universitaires de France.253
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Hühn, P. (2009), ‘Event and eventfulness’, in P. Hühn (ed.), Handbook of Narratology, Berlin: Walter deGruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Hühn, P. (2010), Eventfulness in British Fiction, New York: De Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Keen, S. (2007), Empathy and the Novel, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Keen, S. (2011), ‘Fast tracks to narrative empathy: Anthropomorphism and dehumanization in graphic narratives’, SubStance, 40:1, pp. 135–55.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Keen, S. (2012), ‘Narrative empathy’, in P. Hühn, J. Pier, and W. Schmid, et al. (eds), The Living Handbook of Narratology, Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Narrative_Empathy. Accessed 3 July 2012.
  20. Marion, P. (1993), Traces en cases: travail graphique, figuration narrative et participation du lecteur, Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Merino, A. ([2003] 2005), ‘Chris Ware: (la secuencia circular): Ediciones Sinsentido’, in B. Peeters (ed.), Lire labande dessinée, vol. 530, Paris: Flammarion.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Peeters, B. (1998), Lire la bande dessinée, Paris: Flammarion.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Prager, B. (2003), ‘Modernism in the contemporary graphic novel: Chris Ware and the age of mechanical reproduction’, International Journal of Comic Art, 5:1, pp. 195–213.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Raeburn, D. (1999), ‘The smartest cartoonist on earth’, The Imp, 1:3, 4 July, https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5043029/the-smartest-cartoonist-on-earth-daniel-raeburn. Accessed 19 July 2023.
  25. Raeburn, D. (2004), Chris Ware, New Haven: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Ryan, M.-L. (2003), Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Samson, J. and Peeters, B. (2009), Chris Ware: la bande dessinée réinventée (‘Comics reinvented’), Paris: Les ImpressionsNouvelles.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Schmid, W. (2003), ‘Narrativity and eventfulness’, in T. Kindt and H. Müller (eds), What is Narratology?: Questions and Answers Regarding the Status of a Theory, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 17–33.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Walton, K. L. (1990), Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Ware, C. (2000), Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, New York: Pantheon.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Ware, C. (2001), The Acme Novelty Library #15: The Big Book Of Jokes II, Seattle: Fantagraphics.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Ware, C. (2002), The Whitney Prevaricator, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (poster).
  33. Ware, C. (2006), Acme Novelty Library #17: ACME Novelty Library, Montrèal: Drawn & Quarterly.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Ware, C. (2007a), Acme Novelty Library #18, Montrèal: Drawn & Quarterly.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Ware, C. (2007b), The Acme Novelty Date Book: Sketches and Diary Pages in Facsimile, 1995–2002, Montréal and Enfield: Drawn and Quarterly.254
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Wolk, D. (2008), Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, Boston and New York: Da Capo Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Worden, D. (2010), ‘On modernism's ruins: The architecture of “Building Stories” and lost buildings’, in D. M. Ball and M. B. Kuhlman (eds), The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 107–20.
     [Google Scholar]

  • From This Site

    /content/books/9781789389494.c13
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
/content/books/9781789389494.c13
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Chapter
content/books/9781789389494
Book
false
en
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test