Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen

This study aims to discuss the status and functions of chaptering—and more generally the arrangement of thresholds—in comics, based on the study of the famous graphic novel Watchmen (1986-1988). We propose to discuss the explicit mention of « chapters » and its implications on the structure and cons...

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Main Author: Alain Boillat
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits Cultures Et Sociétés 2018-12-01
Series:Cahiers de Narratologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/narratologie/8757
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author Alain Boillat
author_facet Alain Boillat
author_sort Alain Boillat
collection DOAJ
description This study aims to discuss the status and functions of chaptering—and more generally the arrangement of thresholds—in comics, based on the study of the famous graphic novel Watchmen (1986-1988). We propose to discuss the explicit mention of « chapters » and its implications on the structure and consumption of Watchmen. The retrospective designation of Watchmen episodes as « chapters » is, in our opinion, one of the manifestations of the emergence of a new editorial context that has since emerged with the omnipresence of graphic novels in generalist bookshops. The substitution of the general title of the series by the number of a specific chapter is, in our opinion, emblematic of the meaning that chaptering can have in a medium such as comics, both strongly overlapped with serial practices, and driven, since the 1970s and 1980s, by a quest for artistic legitimacy. Through the analysis of all the graphical elements of chapter segmentation, we will see that in the history of the comic book, Watchmen is indeed one of the main publications to have paved the way for the integration of chapters in this medium of expression.
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spelling doaj-art-0aa745560c3f4f23a67c9c54c2f22f602025-08-20T02:21:21ZfraLaboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits Cultures Et SociétésCahiers de Narratologie0993-85161765-307X2018-12-013410.4000/narratologie.8757Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans WatchmenAlain BoillatThis study aims to discuss the status and functions of chaptering—and more generally the arrangement of thresholds—in comics, based on the study of the famous graphic novel Watchmen (1986-1988). We propose to discuss the explicit mention of « chapters » and its implications on the structure and consumption of Watchmen. The retrospective designation of Watchmen episodes as « chapters » is, in our opinion, one of the manifestations of the emergence of a new editorial context that has since emerged with the omnipresence of graphic novels in generalist bookshops. The substitution of the general title of the series by the number of a specific chapter is, in our opinion, emblematic of the meaning that chaptering can have in a medium such as comics, both strongly overlapped with serial practices, and driven, since the 1970s and 1980s, by a quest for artistic legitimacy. Through the analysis of all the graphical elements of chapter segmentation, we will see that in the history of the comic book, Watchmen is indeed one of the main publications to have paved the way for the integration of chapters in this medium of expression.https://journals.openedition.org/narratologie/8757graphic novelchapterepisodeWatchmenAlan MooreDave Gibbons
spellingShingle Alain Boillat
Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
Cahiers de Narratologie
graphic novel
chapter
episode
Watchmen
Alan Moore
Dave Gibbons
title Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
title_full Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
title_fullStr Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
title_full_unstemmed Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
title_short Douze minutes avant minuit : l’effet « graphic novel » du chapitrage dans Watchmen
title_sort douze minutes avant minuit l effet graphic novel du chapitrage dans watchmen
topic graphic novel
chapter
episode
Watchmen
Alan Moore
Dave Gibbons
url https://journals.openedition.org/narratologie/8757
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