What does Baetons (2001) mean by ‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and the ‘graphiateur’?
These three terms are part of the semiotic study of the breakdown of enunciation in comics by distinguishing the narrative or narrator. Baeton (2001) looks at who is responsible for this act as comics are a form of narrative by words, pictures, layout and space. Looking at the act made by the narrator as a message instead of the work itself; by what the narrator is trying to bring across with their original ideas instead of what the comic itself says, and it looks at what the narrator is trying to say in regards to it as an art form. Each of these three terms have a specific role in comics. Graphiation is said by Baetons (2001) as the ‘graphic and narrative enunciations of comics’(p.147). Otherwise meaning in a whole the messages or expressions shown in the visual or narrative aspects of the comic. Therefore a Graphiateur is the person / agent responsible for betraying these messages in the comics. Monstration has been described as the narration of comics which is shown through the drawings / illustration and not by the words / spoken narrative as the story is narrative by itself through the images and events in the story said as by Baetons (2001) ‘neither narrated nor shown’(p.149). So the difference between Graphiation and Monstration in short would be that; Graphiation looks at the messages brought across and Monstration looks at the narration.
References:
Baetons, J. (2001). From Enunciation to Graphiation. Revealing Traces. A New Theory of Graphic Enunciation. (146 -149)
Hi Jenna, your explanation is very clear. I can see that the graphiateurs express their understanding of the narrative by both picture and graphiation. I Think in a great comic work, the Mostration and the graphiation should work together effectively, to completely reveal the central idea. Meanwhile, I think the Graphiateur is fantastic, because he(she) rewrites the story by graphiation.
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