Prose to panel: negotiating authenticity and visual modality in the comic-book adaptation of a literary memoir

Abstract

The focus of this thesis concerns the ‘graphic memoir/adaptation’, a narrative genre defined as the transposition of a literary memoir (linguistic text) into the distinct, tri-modal form of the comic book (image/text/sequential design). This study will interrogate how the graphic work can translate, reframe, repurpose, and expand upon the source narrative, with particular consideration given to the authenticating role of the artist in the handling of a real-life testimony. This inquiry is practice-led and centres upon a clearly delineated and unique adaptation brief: the graphic interpretation of Pilgrimage from Nenthead (published by Methuen & Co in 1938), an obscure literary memoir penned by Chester Armstrong — the author’s great-grandfather. For the adapter, looking back via the historical gaze of the present, the work presents opportunities and constraints in regard to connecting with the familial subject and in recasting Chester’s interior and exterior worldview, fused as it is with the socio-political landscape of British life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This thesis investigates the adaptive process from the vantage point of the practitioner. As such it offers fresh insights and seeds new knowledge regarding the formulation and implementation of adaptive strategies, designed to address the conceptual and philosophical challenges posed by the adaptation of a literary memoir into the codified vernacular of the comic book. The comic strip is a narrative form that ultimately defies coherence and operates within shifting perceptual margins. There is partial spatial and temporal mapping of scenes and settings, tension in the relay between image and text, and ambiguity in the blank spaces (gutters) between panels and in the page margins. This thesis will explore how these attributes may be effectively deployed by the practitioner/adapter to deal meaningfully with the fragmentary nature of true-life memoir accounts. The written exegesis will examine critical and strategic approaches to adaptation and authentication through the reflexive articulation of the adaptive process, and analysis of page artwork from the accompanying graphic artefact —The Weighman.

Date of Award	27 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University
Supervisor	Tony Williams (Supervisor), Mel Gibson (Supervisor) & Dave Wood (Supervisor)