Who Understands Comics?: Questioning the Universality of Visual Language Comprehension

This book explores the complexity of visual narratives and argues that their universal comprehension cannot be assumed. It combines research from linguistics, cognitive science, and clinical psychology to demonstrate that understanding a visual language requires exposure and practice with a graphic system.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 12 November 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Drawing and sequential images are so prevalent in contemporary society that we may take their understanding for granted. However, how transparent are they, and how universally are they understood? This book argues that visual narratives involve greater complexity and require a lot more decoding than widely thought. Although increasingly used beyond the sphere of entertainment as materials in humanitarian, educational, and experimental contexts, Neil Cohn demonstrates that their universal comprehension cannot be assumed. Instead, understanding a visual language requires a fluency that is contingent on exposure and practice with a graphic system. Bringing together a rich but scattered literature on how people comprehend and learn to comprehend a sequence of images, this book coalesces research from a diverse range of fields into a broader interdisciplinary view of visual narrative to ask: Who Understands Comics?

Recent advances in linguistics, cognitive science, and clinical psychology have shed new light on the nature of visual narratives and their comprehension. Linguists have studied the linguistic structures of comics, revealing that they use a variety of linguistic devices such as speech bubbles, text, and visual cues to convey meaning. Cognitive scientists have explored the cognitive processes involved in reading comics, such as attention, memory, and visual perception. Clinical psychologists have studied the effects of comics on mental health, such as anxiety and depression.

Despite these advances, there is still much to be learned about how people comprehend and learn to comprehend visual narratives. This book aims to bridge the gap between research from different fields and provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary view of visual narrative. It will explore the various factors that influence how people understand comics, such as age, gender, cultural background, and individual differences. It will also examine the different ways in which comics can be used to communicate complex ideas and emotions, such as through metaphor, symbolism, and narrative structure.

One of the key findings of this book is that visual narratives require a fluency that is contingent on exposure and practice with a graphic system. This fluency is not innate but can be developed through exposure to a variety of comics and graphic novels. The more people read comics, the more they develop a sense of the visual language used in them and the more they are able to decode and interpret the images and text.

Another important finding of this book is that visual narratives can be understood by people of all ages and backgrounds. While comics may be particularly popular among children and adolescents, adults can also gain a lot from reading comics. Comics can be used to teach complex ideas and concepts in a fun and engaging way, and they can also be used to explore social and cultural issues that are relevant to adults.

In conclusion, this book argues that visual narratives involve greater complexity and require a lot more decoding than widely thought. While they are increasingly used beyond the sphere of entertainment, their universal comprehension cannot be assumed. Understanding a visual language requires exposure and practice with a graphic system. By bringing together a rich but scattered literature on how people comprehend and learn to comprehend a sequence of images, this book provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary view of visual narrative and aims to bridge the gap between research from different fields. It will explore the various factors that influence how people understand comics, the different ways in which comics can be used to communicate complex ideas and emotions, and the development of fluency in visual language through exposure and practice.

Weight: 428g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350156043