Visual Storytelling in the 21st Century: The Age of the Long Fragment

This volume will explore varying contemporary strategies and examples of visual storytelling across several contemporary spheres: from street art to video games, from media for children to media for adults, from images in movement to static images.It reads these storytelling venues in terms of the ethical itineraries that we live by, or would like to live by, or wish the world lived by. In this sense it relates to the fact that the term “narrative” has become a ubiquitous shorthand for discursive dominance. Observers of widely varying aspects of social life talk, for example, of changing the narrative, claiming the narrative, overhauling the narrative, or owning the narrative. While these general contexts are well known, there remains a need to continually interrogate new examples of storytelling forms, new cases of the uses of stories in differing formats, and new stories in general. This perpetual need is what this volume aims to respond to by way of its mixture of contemporary storytelling locations and exemplars. Acknowledgements About the Book Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: Visual Storytelling in the Age of the Long Fragment Acceleration The Long Fragment Conclusion References Chapter 2: Forms and Order: Making the World More Just Through Video Games? Introduction Wholes Rhythm Hierarchy Network Conclusion References Games Chapter 3: Video Games as Animation: Inquiries into the Animatic Nature of Playable Images Introduction: Video Games, Animation, and Visual Culture Video Games as Images Video Games and the Animatic Apparatus Five Paths for Video Games as Animatic Visual Culture Conclusions References Chapter 4: Wonder, Awe and Negative Emotions in What Remains of Edith Finch Introduction Storytelling Emotion Conclusion References Chapter 5: Look Behind You, Orpheus: Queer Archeology and Mythical Lesbians in Contemporary Film Introduction Tracing a Ghost Framing a Ghost Living with the Ghost References Chapter 6: “All These Things into Position”: Intermedial Storytelling via Radiohead’s “Street Spirit,” the Novels of Ben Okri, and Feminist Dystopia Introduction: From The Handmaid’s Tale to Postcolonial Intermediality The Soundtrack of The Handmaid’s Tale: Three Cases The Crossing: Storytelling, Borderline Identities, and Images of Transition Conclusion: Storytelling, Borderline Identities, and Images of Transition References Chapter 7: What’s the Story? How Hybrid Comics Against Gender Violence Rework Narrative and Support Artivism Introduction The Luchadoras Project: The Merits of Low Narrativity Matrioske Parlanti: Comics Between Intersectionality and Distributed Narrative Conclusion References Chapter 8: Voices of Graffiti in Urban Settings: Symbolic Contestation and Political Narratives Introduction Conceptual Dimensions Graffiti as Visual Narratives Urban Setting Narratives Visual Writers and Voices of the Crisis Method, Assembly, and the Use of Images Looking Ahead References Chapter 9: Bourne-Again Bond: Retooling the Spy Story in the New Millennium Introduction Intramedial Espionage Location, Action, Technologies The Choice and Use of Film Locations Action Sequences The Representation of Advanced Technologies Conclusion References Filmography Chapter 10: Monsters in Animation and Related Nightmares in Contemporary Popular Culture Introducing Monsters Exported Popular Culture and Monsters Animation: Cultural Dominance for the Young Monsters: Who Are They and Why Do We Need Them? Monsters, Violence, and Animation Cute Monsters, Cute Violence Corpus Dissecting the Shrek Saga Monsters on Duty: Monsters, Inc. Monsters vs Aliens Onward Conclusion References Chapter 11: The Graphic Self of Public Intellectuals: Chinese Tiaoman as Digital Practices of Self-Representation on WeChat Introduction Theoretical Outline Methodology Data Analysis Xu Zhiyuan and Lion: A Cute and Relatable Self Uncle Lion on the Move: A Commercialized Self Conclusion References Chapter 12: Through Etched Glass: Representing Urban Place in Christina Fernandez’s Photographic Series Lavanderia Introduction Filaments of Life: Histories of the Communities of the Neighbourhoods Framing a Close Dialogue with Launderettes and the Communities Around Them, in Lavanderia Conclusion References Chapter 13: The Artwork in Geological Time Introduction Edward Burtynsky: From Manufactured Landscapes to Uncertain Timescapes Cedric Blaisbois’s Autocannibalism The Future Library Earth’s Black Box Onkalo: Into Eternity Conclusion References Index