Muted sequential art: A cross-cultural discourse

Abstract

When speaking about discourse, we tend to think about words. Here, I propose that a cross-cultural discourse doesn’t necessarily involve words, taking as an example Sequential Art. Comics in their modern sense are born as commercial objects and developed as a full narrative language and art, erasing borders to speak worldwide. How did they do it? They stopped talking. In this article, we will be analyzing the millennial history and future potential of wordless sequential art, seeing it as a powerful tool for inclusive and global communication. Our case study will be Shaun Tan’s "The Arrival", a sublime wordless comic book about migration, belonging, war, and hope. In depicting the travel and the struggles of a man leaving his country for a better future, the author creates a condition of equal foreignness through shapes, creatures, and language, ultimately creating through silence and unreadable words an universally understandable discourse.