Framing the text : an investigation of collage in postmodern narrative illustration

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Collage, as a verbal and visual medium, epitomises the heterogeneity, indeterminacy andfragmentation of the postmodern moment. In this thesis I argue that visual collage - in the contextof book illustration - presents an ideal form with which to illustrate the state of contemporary(postmodern) narrative. Postmodernism, as a term or concept, evades any form of absolute ordefinitive account. Hence, in my discussion of the postmodern condition I move towards anunderstanding of this complex theoretical and cultural phenomenon. Postmodern cultural artifactsreflect the state of a modernised, Western-orientated, globalised consciousness, which resistsarborescent structures in past and contemporary texts. In both postmodern narratives and inliterary fictional narratives the condition of artifice is amplified. Thus, this thesis explores variouscharacteristics evident in postmodern fiction in order to understand and demonstrate the changesmanifest in contemporary narratives in general. Many of the stylistic and figurative devicesemployed in the postmodern novel foreground the excessive appropriation and self-reflexivetextualism of contemporary texts - these literary devices often reflect particular collage-liketendencies or characteristics.Contemporary literary theory, in addition, provides many useful terms and concepts with whichto describe visual texts and, for the purposes of this discussion, narrative illustration. This thesisis centred primarily on an analysis of the practical component completed as part of the Master ofArts degree in Fine Arts. The discussion of the practical work is embedded in the wider fields ofbook art - particularly the postmodern artist's book (livre detourne) - and in contentious debatesaround the role of visual narrative illustration. In both the thesis and the illustrated book objects, Ichallenge the secondary and supplementary position traditionally held by illustration in thecontext of the book. I argue for a form of visual narrative that is not required to function as amere translation of the primary verbal text. Instead - working within the context of the artist'sbook and through the utilisation of collage as a visual (and verbal) medium - I demonstrate thatillustration may complement, supplement or subvert the written text. Furthermore, I show thatillustration may assume the role of the primary text in the context of the codex.Finally, this study creates a space for a creative and participatory reader who, through theintertextual processes made evident in the book objects, becomes an active 'reader-writer' of thevisual and verbal narratives under discussion.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University