Which Donald is this? Which tyche is this? A semiotic approach to nomadic cartoonish characters
-
Stephan Packard
Abstract
Dealing with a de- or recontextualized cartoon affords media users a number of challenges and opportunities. The approach proposed here traces these effects not merely as consequences of universalized converging media, storyworlds, and transfictional or transdiegetic character models, but complements that view by reversing the question and asking which semiotic feats media users are invited to accomplish as they engage with a cartoon and gradually build consequences around that encounter. From a deduction of general properties applied to a specific instance, I move to abductions that generalize by departing from said instance. I propose distinguishing three different aspects of the phenomenon alongside three different questions that one might ask of a given cartoonish depiction of some character. By categorical deduction, one might first ask, “Who is this cartoon?” In a pragmaticist reversal that takes its cue from the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, one might then ask, “What shall I do with this cartoon?” And finally, from a point of view that conceives of the transmedial aspects of the challenge by foregrounding the uncertainties that establish the decontextualized encounter in the first place, one might adapt a concept from Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis and ask, “Which tyche is this?”
References
Althusser, Louis. 2011. Sur la reproduction. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.10.3917/puf.althu.2011.01Suche in Google Scholar
Ardhi, Yulian. 2012. Duck knight rises. Deviant art 20 May. https://www.deviantart.com/yulian-ardhi/art/Duck-Knight-Rises-Fan-Art-300151600 (accessed 5 May 2019). Suche in Google Scholar
Bentley. Eric. 1966. The life of the drama. London: Methuen.Suche in Google Scholar
Currie, Gregory. 2010. Narratives and narrators: A philosophy of stories. Oxford: University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282609.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Frahm, Ole. 2010. Die Sprache des Comics. Hamburg: Philo Fine Arts. Suche in Google Scholar
Freitag, Wolfgang. 2019. Reference. In Monika Fludernik and Marie-Laure Ryan (eds.), Handbook of factual narration. Berlin: De Gruyter. [Forthcoming.]Suche in Google Scholar
Hailey. 2018. Donald Duck. Comic vine 2 September. https://comicvine.gamespot.com/donald-duck/4005-22182/ (accessed 5 May 2019). Suche in Google Scholar
Higgins, Dick & Hannah Higgins. 2001. Intermedia. Leonardo 34(1). 49–54.10.1162/002409401300052514Suche in Google Scholar
Kapitan, Tomis. 1990. In what way is abductive inference creative? Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce society 26(4). 499–512.Suche in Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul. 1979. Speaker reference and semantic reference. In Peter A. French at al. (eds.), Contemporary perspectives in the philosophy of language, 6–27. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Lacan, Jacques. 1966. Le séminaire sur La lettre volée. Écrits, 11–61. Paris: Le Seuil. Suche in Google Scholar
Lacan, Jacques. 1973. Le séminaire XI : Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse. Paris: Le Seuil. Suche in Google Scholar
Marcus, Stephanie. Hello Kitty is not a cat because nothing makes sense anymore. Huffington Post 27 August. http://www.huffpost.com/entry/hello-kitty-not-cat_n_5725908 (accessed 5 May 2019).Suche in Google Scholar
McCloud, Scott. 1994. Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Perennial. Suche in Google Scholar
Moore, Alan. 1993. The unexplored medium: Interview with William A. Christensen and Mark Seifert. Wizard 27. 42–45.Suche in Google Scholar
Packard, Stephan. 2006. Reflections of the cartoon. International journal of comic art IJoCA 8(2): 113–125.Suche in Google Scholar
Packard, Stephan. 2011. Was sind intermediale Einheiten? Zu wandernden Cartoons und Colerdiges Allegorie. In Achim Hölter (ed.), Comparative arts, 255–265. Heidelberg: Synchron. Suche in Google Scholar
Packard. Stephan. 2013. Coleridge, Heartfield, Higgins: Finding transmediality amongst intermedia. In Alfonso de Toro (ed.), Tranlsatio: Transmédialité et transculturalité en littérature, peinture, photographie et au cinéma, 279–302. Paris: L’Harmmattan. Suche in Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles S. 1998. Short logic. In The essential Peirce: Selected philosophical writings. Vol. 2. Edited by The Peirce edition project, 11–26. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Suche in Google Scholar
Rajewsky, Irina. 2002. Intermedialität. Tübingen: Francke. Suche in Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand. 1905. On denoting. Mind 14. 479–493.10.1093/mind/XIV.4.479Suche in Google Scholar
Strawson, Peter F. 1950. On referring. Mind 59. 320–344.10.1093/mind/LIX.235.320Suche in Google Scholar
Thon, Jan-Noël. 2016. Transmedial narratology and contemporary media culture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.10.2307/j.ctt1d8h8vnSuche in Google Scholar
Thon, Jan-Noël. 2019. Transmedia characters: Theory and analysis. Frontiers of narrative studies 5(2). 176–199.10.1515/fns-2019-0012Suche in Google Scholar
de Toro, Alfonso. 2002. Jenseits von Postmoderne und Postkolonialität: Materialien zu einem Modell der Hybridität und des Körpers als transrelationalem, transversalem und transmedialem Wissenschaftskonzept. In Christof Hamann & Cornelia Sieber (eds.), Räume der Hybridität, 15–44. Holdesheim: Olms. Suche in Google Scholar
Wilde, Lukas R.A. 2018. Im Reich der Figuren: Meta-narrative Kommunikationsfiguren und die ‘Mangaisierung’ des japanischen Alltags. Cologne: Herbert von Halem.Suche in Google Scholar
Wilde, Lukas R.A. 2019 a. Recontextualizing characters: Media convergence and pre-/meta-narrative character circulation. IMAGE: Journal of interdisciplinary image science 29 (special issue). 3–21.Suche in Google Scholar
Wilde, Lukas R.A. 2019 b. Kyara revisited: The pre-narrative character-state of Japanese character theory. Frontiers of narrative studies 5(2). 219–246.10.1515/fns-2019-0014Suche in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Characters across media
- Transmedia characters: Theory and analysis
- Buck Rogers in the 25th century: Transmedia extensions of a pulp hero
- Kyara revisited: The pre-narrative character-state of Japanese character theory
- Which Donald is this? Which tyche is this? A semiotic approach to nomadic cartoonish characters
- Versifying Batman: Superheroes in contemporary poetry
- “We don’t get to stay the same way we started”: The walking dead, augmented television, and sociological character-building
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Characters across media
- Transmedia characters: Theory and analysis
- Buck Rogers in the 25th century: Transmedia extensions of a pulp hero
- Kyara revisited: The pre-narrative character-state of Japanese character theory
- Which Donald is this? Which tyche is this? A semiotic approach to nomadic cartoonish characters
- Versifying Batman: Superheroes in contemporary poetry
- “We don’t get to stay the same way we started”: The walking dead, augmented television, and sociological character-building
