Resisting narrative immersion

The following article will discuss the work of Chris Ware in terms of narrative immersion, that is, the state of mental absorption, the capacity of being dragged in the storyworld, or being ‘carried away’ in the game of ‘make-believe’. The taxonomy by Marie-Laure Ryan will be taken here as a guideline to look at three main types of narrative immersion, namely, spatial, temporal and emotional immersion. I will depart from a negative approach, addressing Ware’s unrelenting resistance towards fictional immersion (that should not be taken as a complete rejection, but a deliberate delay).