The Intertext series has been specifically designed to meet the needs of contemporary English Language Studies. Working with Texts: A Core Introduction to Language Analysis (second edition, 2001) is the foundation text, which is complemented by a range of 'satellite' titles. These provide students with hands-on practical experience of textual analysis through special topics, and can be used individually or in conjunction with Working with Texts.
The Language of Comics:
highly illustrated with large number of real comic strips
provides a history of comics from the end of the nineteenth century to the present
explores the 'semiotics of comics', from the interaction between the verbal and the visual and how texts interrelate to the way speech and thought are reported in narrative and point of view
makes the case for comics as multi-modal texts and considers future developments in the genre
is user friendly and accessible, and provides a full glossary.
Unit one: What are comics? Historical overview; How comic are comics? The components of comics; The panel; The gutter; The balloon; The caption; Unit two: Words and pictures; The blend between words and pictures; Semiotics and the idea of the sign; Looking at words; The visual aspect of words in comics; Reading pictures; Pictures in comics; The collaboration between words and pictures; Unit three: Between the panels; Cartoons, comics and language; Cohesion; Repetition; Coherence; Semantic field; Inference: bridging the gaps; Summary 56 Unit four: The voices of comics; Fictional voices: can you hear them? Who's speaking? Thought presentation: reading the characters' minds; Voices in comics; Thought balloons; Unit five: The eyes of comics; What does 'point of view' mean? Deictics; Unit six: Comics and computers; Comics in computers? Cartoons on your desktop? Words and comics; Artists with mice.
