Chronotope in Moore and Gibbons's Watchmen

Following Cyril Camus's argument that the category of "graphic novel" is defined by its particular use of literary chronotopes, the present paper reads Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen as a treasure trove of chronotopic arrangements. As a metafictional exploration of its ow...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in the novel 2018-06, Vol.50 (2), p.255-276
Main Author: Mahmutović, Adnan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British & Irish literature
Chronotope
English literature
Fiction
Gaiman, Neil
Graphic novels
Metafiction
Modernity
Plot (Narrative)
Postmodernism
Publishing
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Summary:Following Cyril Camus's argument that the category of "graphic novel" is defined by its particular use of literary chronotopes, the present paper reads Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen as a treasure trove of chronotopic arrangements. As a metafictional exploration of its own medium, Watchmen displays a plurality of chronotopes, which is not simply an effect of its postmodernism (Smethurst), but the inherent possibility of graphic narrative. Therefore, with the help of Watchmen, it is possible to both argue for an easy transfer of Bakhtinian theory to the field of comics studies, and highlight the ways in which the unique potential of the medium as such can help us repurpose the theory of the chronotope.
ISSN:0039-3827
1934-1512
1934-1512
DOI:10.1353/sdn.2018.0014