Graphic Literature Meets Classic Fiction: Discerning the Visual Language of Pride and Prejudice and Fahrenheit 451

Visual language has gained importance with the acceptance of graphic novels as a literary genre. Visual Language studies the interaction between words and images to convey meaning (Cohn 2013). The current research explores how visual elements in comics combine to convey a cohesive message in graphic novels, especially focusing on visual morphology, visual narrative structure, and visual lexicon. The research relies on theories of visual language by Cohn to analyze the graphic adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (1984) and Fahrenheit 451 (2009). It explores the role of fewer words and a different writing style used in graphic novels to convey meaning in visual narratives. Discerning visual language in graphic novels is expected to add to the human understanding of communicating and comprehending meaning through the interplay of words and images.