{"product_id":"storytelling-in-kabuki-an-exploration-of-spatial-poetics-of-comics-9781496226686","title":"Storytelling in Kabuki: An Exploration of Spatial Poetics of Comics","description":"Steen Ledet Christiansen's \u003ci\u003eStorytelling in \"Kabuki\"\u003c\/i\u003e explores the series created by David Mack--a slow, recursive narrative that focuses on the death of Kabuki and her past. The series ran from 1994 to 2004 in a variety of miniseries, one-shots, and spin-offs, rather than following a conventional American monthly release schedule. Most of the series explores different perspectives on the same event and adds background to Kabuki's past, usually through surreal sequences, dreams, and near-death experiences. The flexibility of comics' approach to chronology, space, focalization, narrative, and fictionality enabled Mack to produce an unusual experience. \u003ci\u003eKabuki\u003c\/i\u003e tells a story that can only exist via comics. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Christiansen analyzes the visual design of the series, a heterogeneous collection of styles depending on the story. To understand \u003ci\u003eKabuki\u003c\/i\u003e, it is crucial to explore the visual styles, as well as the use of visual and spatial rhymes and mixed media forms. Because \u003ci\u003eKabuki\u003c\/i\u003e employs a complex layering of focalizations, diegetic levels, and metafictional self-reflectivity that is rare in mainstream American comics, it utilizes a narrative poetics that focuses on constant repeating, restating, and returning to the same events. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eKabuki\u003c\/i\u003e's unique compositional layering allows Christiansen to provide a clear example of how comics work while also expanding on critical vocabulary, especially in terms of spatial poetics. By exploring spatial form, Christiansen illuminates and gives a critical framework to a different and underexamined aspect of comics. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteen Ledet Christiansen\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of culture, media, and aesthetics at Aalborg University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eDrone Age Cinema: Action Films and Sensory Assault\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New Cinematic Weird: Atmospheres and Worldings\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50725112283410,"sku":"9781496226686","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_40d1a4fa-041d-4a9c-9dd9-5bd054fcb7c0.jpg?v=1734817251","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/storytelling-in-kabuki-an-exploration-of-spatial-poetics-of-comics-9781496226686","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}