Visual Narratives are Underrated
Finally, here is a space to formally gush about visual novels, comic books, and webcomics. I always knew that there was something special about them, and not just in the sense that they were pretty and you can see your favorite superhero’s abs instead of just imagining it, but I mean that these visual narratives have an impact that you can’t get from short stories or novels. Throughout my life, I’ve been noticing the clever ways in which comic books use visual representation to present subtext or metaphors within the story. It wasn’t until I read MAUS, and its complementary critical readings, that I was able to put a name to it: focalization. “Focalization” is a completely new term to me, and initially I had only understood that function as a visual perspective. More specifically, a visual perspective in textual narratives. When we discussed about focalization versus narration in textual narratives, I was still pretty confused, but seeing how focalization functions in visual narrati...
