In Emily St. John Mandel’s post-apocolyptic Station Eleven, time periods and characters are linked through a material artifact: two issues of a comic book, also titled Station Eleven. The provenance of the comic book is a slowly unveiled mystery, while the story of the comic book informs the reader’s interpretation of the novel’s larger story. The UK edition contained a two page spread by artist Nathan Burton representing a scene from the comic book, and Mandel has indicated interest in writing issues of the comic book in the future. However, presently, many readers experience Station Eleven the comic only through the prose description contained within Station Eleven the novel. What does it mean for a graphic narrative to be embedded within a prose novel in this way? How would the book be different if the story-within-a-story had been presented in another form, such as a novel or a children’s book? This paper will explore the creation and reception of Station Eleven the comic book, both within the context of the novel’s story and as an element of the novel itself. Doing so will include an examination of whether techniques for reading graphic narratives, such as those in Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics can be applied to the descriptions of images and layouts embedded within the prose. Finally, I will look at how Mandel’s deployment of graphic narrative within her novel can inform our understanding of the comic book form.
About the presenterHelen Schubert Fields
Helen Schubert Fields holds an MS in Library Science with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons College School of Library and Information Science and is pursing an MA in History, also at Simmons College. Her academic interests include the history of pop culture and the history of child rearing.