Intermedialidad e intertextualidad en la serie The Spirit de Will Eisner

Abstract

Literature is itself a medium that has influenced other media and has, in turn, been influenced by a plurality of media. With a few exceptions, however, literary narratology has remained monomedial. The present contribution explores the ways in which the concept of intermediality can be integrated into the study of (comparative) literature and cultural studies. This approach to intermedial phenomena is neither on media-historical developments nor on media-recognition. Instead, the focus is on intermediality (in a narrow sense) as a critical category for the analysis of an autonomous multimodal medium (comics) and the intertextual use of other media in a given work in a specific cultural-historical context. Drawing from the typology of intermedial forms set up by Werner Wolf and Irina Rajewski, this study examines three variants of intracompositional intermediality: a) plurimediality, i.e., the specific qualities of a hybrid medium that combines visual and verbal modes of representation as a vehicle for storytelling, and b) the intermedial references (implicit and explicit) to another medium or genre in an individual work (heteromedial references). In particular, this article explores how the medium of comics thematizes (incorporates literary content), re-mediates (refashions older media and enhances expressive resources) and imitates specific elements or representational practices of other media (like film noir and popular theatre) in Will Eisner's highly lauded weekly comic book, The Spirit, which became known for its innovative type of storytelling and its cinematic qualities