Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression
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Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression

  • Elisabeth El Refaie
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Time Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity
This chapter is in the book Time Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity

Abstract

One common but lesser-known symptom of depression is distorted temporal perception. This chapter analyzes visual metaphors in seven graphic memoirs about depression, revealing the unique opportunities for creativity in the evocation of subjective time offered by this genre. Specifically, the authors of these works use different combinations of “pictorial” and “spatial” metaphors (El Refaie 2019) to convey their sense of time slowing down or freezing, and of being out of sync with other people. These findings are related to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, including Stocker’s (2014) notion of “spacetime”.

Abstract

One common but lesser-known symptom of depression is distorted temporal perception. This chapter analyzes visual metaphors in seven graphic memoirs about depression, revealing the unique opportunities for creativity in the evocation of subjective time offered by this genre. Specifically, the authors of these works use different combinations of “pictorial” and “spatial” metaphors (El Refaie 2019) to convey their sense of time slowing down or freezing, and of being out of sync with other people. These findings are related to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, including Stocker’s (2014) notion of “spacetime”.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Time and creativity in language
  6. Chapter 1. A corpus-based look at time metaphors 15
  7. Chapter 2. Time moves more often in poetry 41
  8. Chapter 3. What is time? 61
  9. Chapter 4. Working on it 81
  10. Part II. Beyond language
  11. Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression 101
  12. Chapter 6. Time-creation in film 125
  13. Chapter 7. Beyond the limits 147
  14. Chapter 8. From “slow lettuce” to “striated time” 163
  15. Chapter 9. Physical and imaginary landmarks in English time gestures 187
  16. Chapter 10. Time in Chinese hands 209
  17. Epilogue. Creative to whom, and on what basis? 233
  18. Index 243
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.75.05elr

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Time and creativity in language
  6. Chapter 1. A corpus-based look at time metaphors 15
  7. Chapter 2. Time moves more often in poetry 41
  8. Chapter 3. What is time? 61
  9. Chapter 4. Working on it 81
  10. Part II. Beyond language
  11. Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression 101
  12. Chapter 6. Time-creation in film 125
  13. Chapter 7. Beyond the limits 147
  14. Chapter 8. From “slow lettuce” to “striated time” 163
  15. Chapter 9. Physical and imaginary landmarks in English time gestures 187
  16. Chapter 10. Time in Chinese hands 209
  17. Epilogue. Creative to whom, and on what basis? 233
  18. Index 243
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