From Loose to Boxed Fragments and Back Again. Seriality and Archive in Chris Ware's ‘Building Stories’

[en] This article focuses on the dynamics of seriality, archive and collection in Chris Ware's graphic novel “Building Stories”. It argues that the dispersed serialization of “Building Stories” is key to understand its box-of- comics format as well as its fragmented narrative structure. In a self-reflexive homage to the material history of comics, Ware's graphic novel indeed appears as an archive of its own serialization, foregrounding a process of collecting/dispersing fragments.
[fr] Cet article examine les dynamiques de sérialité, d'archive et de collection qui animent le “Building Stories” de Chris Ware. Il s'agit de resiter l'importance d'une sérialisation dispersée de l'œuvre qui est clé à se structure en emboîtement et à son récit fragmenté. Par un homage réflexif à l'histoire matérielle de la bande dessinée, le roman graphique de Chris Ware apparaît en effet comme une archive de sa propre sérialisation, illuminant un processus de dispersion et de collection de ses propres fragments.

Research center :

ACME

Disciplines :

Art & art history
Literature
Arts & humanities: Multidisciplinary, general & others

Author, co-author :

Crucifix, Benoît ; Université de Liège > Département de langues et littératures romanes > Département de langues et littératures romanes

Language :

English

Title :

From Loose to Boxed Fragments and Back Again. Seriality and Archive in Chris Ware's ‘Building Stories’

Publication date :

2018

Journal title :

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

ISSN :

2150-4857

eISSN :

2150-4865

Publisher :

Taylor & Francis

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

3-22

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21504857.2017.1303619

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]

Available on ORBi :

since 01 March 2017

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Bibliography

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