Older than language : comics as philosophical praxis and heuristic for philosophical canon

Abrahams, Shathley Q

Older than language : comics as philosophical praxis and heuristic for philosophical canon

Doctoral Thesis

2009

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Sociology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

The central task of this dissertation is the exploration of the medium of comics, and its connections to both popular culture and philosophy as a practice conceived in the Western tradition. Comics (at times referred to as both 'graphic literature' and 'sequential art' during this dissertation) constitutes a wholly new object. One that is qualitatively distinct from prose, theater, poetry and cinema. Mimicking the structure of comics wherein two images are juxtaposed to suggest (rather than explicitly state) a coherent sequence in the mind of the reader, this dissertation offers two "images" of its central thesis: one a theoretical element, the other a work of creative fiction. Following on from each other, these "images" interrogate both in their parts and in their sequence, the politics of representation around comics and its connections to philosophy and the popular. In the first "image" a theoretical work is forwarded to examine the various connections that arise between comics, popular culture and philosophy. The central thesis of this element argues for a nuanced understanding in which the medium of comics provides for a clearer interlocutor of Western philosophy's perennial concerns. The works of Galileo, Vico, Descartes, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Foucault and Deleuze are reinterpreted using the aesthetic mechanics of comics as philosophical concept. This dissertation thus asserts that comics functions as "heuristic" for Western philosophy, a method which encodes understanding through practice.

Description

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-197).

Keywords

Sociology

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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