'n Ondersoek na en dekonstruksie van die taal (beeld en teks) vervat in die visuele narratief met spesiale verwysing na die komiekstripmedium

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This thesis is concerned with a study of the two basic elements of communication,namely image and text. How these basic communication tools function in the genre ofthe visual narrative with regard to their roles in the comic strip and the artist's book,will be examined. Both genres, the comic book and the artist's book, consist ofcomplex structures regarding their workings in the framework of the visual narrative,and this work explores these complexities by analysing how image and text function inthe visual narrative.The area of semiotics is used as a basis on which the arguments in this thesis are built.The principles contained in semiotics act as useful guidelines in the reading andunderstanding of communication in general, but in this study these principles givefocus and structure to the research of especially the comic strip and the artist's book.Concepts that are discussed in depth include the interesting interactions which occurbetween image and text when they are used together. Signs, icons, symbols and howthey function with (or without) text, are also examined. Text can also function asimage, and this visualisation of text is explored. The role of concepts likeinterpretation, perception, the study of images and image-association, are all veryimportant in the visual communicator's eventual success with his/her communication.How these concepts influence the creation and forming of one's visual intelligence andvisual literacy, and the eventual effect it has on the process of communication, makeup a very important part of this study. These arguments lead to a discussion of thedynamics contained in the visual narrative when looked at from a semiotic perspective.Central to the discussion on the visual narrative in this thesis, is the differentiationbetween two similar genres:1) Firstly, a discussion of the functioning of the comic strip medium. Importantaspects of this subject are the interactions of image and text, and how the comic medium consists of a unique set of symbols, which influence the specificcommunication in this genre.2) Secondly, the genre of the artist's book, and how the medium of the book functionsas a unique phenomenon in communication. The systems of meaning contained inthe medium of the book are looked at against the light of a semiotic analysis of textand image.This research supports the importance of a semiotic approach as a helpful aid in theinterpretation of any piece of communication, but especially that of the comic stripmedium and the artist's book. The theories of Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure,Roman Jakobson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Umberto Eco are used as basis of thearguments in this thesis and serve as valuable ground for a useful discourse. Theimplementation of above mentioned theories lead to an indication of the complexitiesinvolved in the special visual language of the comic strip and the artist's book.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University