5. Narrative Framing: Storytelling, Structures, and Perspectives

Storytelling is a central concern of documentary graphic narratives. This chapter discusses narrative framing strategies in the selected works: for instance, how stories are told and contextualized, for instance, through comments and/or contradicting accounts, shapes the comprehension of the represented events. Each narrative discourse frames the represented events through particular representational choices. Moreover, different narrative levels frame each other: similar to a detective story, many documentary graphic narratives include a framing narrative that outlines the reporter’s investigation, and into which witness accounts are embedded to tell the story of a past crisis. Furthermore, storytelling is especially persuasive because of its lifelike rendering of events, which makes them emotionally relatable. As an integral dynamic, documentary comics faces a productive contradiction: authors both seek to immerse their readers in gripping stories and draw attention to the constructedness of the reported events.