Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Graphic Novels and Scriptural Interpretation

Looking for a new angle on graphic novels? This article from the Society of Biblical Literature describes in detail a graphic novel about Samson. While that is informative, what I found really intriguing is the commentary on interpretation. The following quote gives a sense of what I mean about the commentary:

"Since the process of movement from narrative text to the graphic novel format is very much akin to that of book to film, requiring much more detail about the characters, more dialogue between them, etc., than the biblical text gives, midrashic thinking may be the key to uncovering that deeply implicit detail. The challenge for exploring midrashic thinking as part of the process for transferring Scripture in GN formats will be "how to put into place the necessary constraints and parameters" [21] so that there are controls for "midrashic extractions" of detail or dialogue embedded in the canonical text. This need for care and balance and restraint is underscored by the many extant ancient examples of forced meanings derived by midrashic applications."

I would like to know what others think about this topic or any other aspect of the article.

No comments: