Hand of the Artist as Interpretative Category

The aim of this study is to propose a method for interpreting graphic narratives in a way that accounts for their multimodal mode of communicating with the reader. It is an attempt to begin a discussion about the meaning of the form of a graphic mark and the gesture behind its creation by introducing a new framework for looking at narrative illustrations. The methodology presented here derives from the fields of semiotics, aesthetics, and humanistic thought regarding the human body. Soma—that is, the living, sentient body—constitutes the origin of the generative act that produces an image. The study takes Chinese calligraphy, with its dedication to embodied mimesis and appreciation of pure form, along with selected Western leading theories in the field of art reception and creation, as a reference point in its pursuit of a somatically oriented methodology for interpreting narrative images. It ends with an interpretation of a wordless graphic novella by Thomas Ott, The Forest, which, through the employment of the scratchboarding technique, emphasizes the role of the artist’s hand gesture as a meaningful stylistic and narrative component of the book.