Over the past two decades, manga has exploded in readership beyond Japan, and its style has
captured the interest of young artists all over. But, what exactly are the properties of this "style"
beyond the surface of big eyes and "backward" reading? This paper explores the structural
elements of the Japanese Visual Language (JVL) that comprises the "manga style" — ranging
from looking at the “big eyes, small mouth” schema as a “standard” dialect, to examining the
graphic emblems that form manga’s conventional visual vocabulary. Particular focus will be
given to JVL grammar — the system that creates meaning via sequential images — and how it
differs from the visual languages from other parts of the world. On the whole, manga provide an
excellent forum for understanding the scope of the visual language paradigm.
%0 Journal Article
%1 cohn2007
%A Cohn, Neil
%D 2007
%K aesthetics comics japan manga priorität:3 reception
%T Japanese Visual Language. The Structure of Manga
%X Over the past two decades, manga has exploded in readership beyond Japan, and its style has
captured the interest of young artists all over. But, what exactly are the properties of this "style"
beyond the surface of big eyes and "backward" reading? This paper explores the structural
elements of the Japanese Visual Language (JVL) that comprises the "manga style" — ranging
from looking at the “big eyes, small mouth” schema as a “standard” dialect, to examining the
graphic emblems that form manga’s conventional visual vocabulary. Particular focus will be
given to JVL grammar — the system that creates meaning via sequential images — and how it
differs from the visual languages from other parts of the world. On the whole, manga provide an
excellent forum for understanding the scope of the visual language paradigm.
@article{cohn2007,
abstract = {Over the past two decades, manga has exploded in readership beyond Japan, and its style has
captured the interest of young artists all over. But, what exactly are the properties of this "style"
beyond the surface of big eyes and "backward" reading? This paper explores the structural
elements of the Japanese Visual Language (JVL) that comprises the "manga style" — ranging
from looking at the “big eyes, small mouth” schema as a “standard” dialect, to examining the
graphic emblems that form manga’s conventional visual vocabulary. Particular focus will be
given to JVL grammar — the system that creates meaning via sequential images — and how it
differs from the visual languages from other parts of the world. On the whole, manga provide an
excellent forum for understanding the scope of the visual language paradigm.
},
added-at = {2009-05-03T20:07:19.000+0200},
author = {Cohn, Neil},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/216ae6a39c7606cfb23d627b8bcacc85a/iglesia},
interhash = {6f9055212c3a637652ffdb62a0216a88},
intrahash = {16ae6a39c7606cfb23d627b8bcacc85a},
keywords = {aesthetics comics japan manga priorität:3 reception},
timestamp = {2009-05-03T20:07:19.000+0200},
title = {Japanese Visual Language. The Structure of Manga},
year = 2007
}