Graphic Literature: Definitions, History, Components

Abstract

Abstract. The article defines for the first time the concept of graphic literature a special kind of book and magazine graphics, which has become widespread in world art practice over the past century. It emphasizes that graphic literature combines elements of fine arts, literature, and cinema. It reveals the essence of graphic literature in the narrative of history through a sequence of images. It reviews the history of formation and development of this art form in world and Ukrainian art history. It outlines the specific features of graphic literature in certain countries. It gives the names of personalities who influenced its origin and spread around the world. The article is mainly focused on the analysis of the history of graphic literature development in Ukraine. It outlines the contribution of Ukrainian artists of the 20th century to its development. It emphasizes the reasons for the negative attitude to graphic works of literature in Soviet times. It considers in detail the spread of works of graphic literature in Ukraine at the beginning of the 21st century. It names Ukrainian personalities and specialized publishing houses that actively develop modern graphic literature. It outlines the basic structure, some important elements, and technique of graphic works. It emphasizes the similarity of the design of works of graphic and fiction. It reveals the main purpose of graphic literature in the most effective way to convey the main idea of a literary work to the reader and to get him/her interested with the help of visual images. It examines the genre diversity of graphic literature in Ukraine in the last decade. It analyses the dependence of the genres of graphic works on the age restrictions of the readership. It reveals the necessity to further study and analyse such graphic works from the art point of view. Graphic literature combines publications in which the narration is conveyed through hand-drawn and textual images in a certain sequence.