Episode 20. “Comic Book Theory for Medievalists”
January 16, 2025 in Manuscript Studies, Research Group Episodes for The Research Group Speaks, Research Group Speaks (The Series)
“The Research Group Speaks”
Episode 20
“Comic Book Theory
for Medievalists:
The Poetics”
Jesse D. Hurlbut
Saturday 1 March 2025
1:00–2:30 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom
[Posted on 20 January 2025]
Our series wherein “The Research Group Speaks” continues with its Twentieth Episode in an exploration of the phenomenon of dynamic interactions between words and images found in books from widely distant centuries, yet in compellingly similar modes of presentation.
BnF, Fr, 1141, fol. 140v, detail.
London, British Museum. Door-sill carved as a carpet. From Room I, door c, the North Palace of Ashurbanipal II at Nineveh, Iraq. 645-640 BCE. Photograph (2014) Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons..
This Episode follows Episode 19 in January 2025 “At the Gate: RGME Activities for 2025” to launch our Theme for this Year, “Thresholds and Communities”, with reflections on the theme and an introduction to the suite of our multiple activities for 2025.
Episode 20 takes a look at an engaging didactic genre of illustrated books, whether in manuscript or print, which displays an unfolding story as the pages take their turns.
Which genre is that? Comic books, par excellence, along with their popular forerunners in medieval narratives of many kinds in which sequential series of images accompany or take over the story.