Visualizing Enlightenment: A Kukkonenian Cognitive-Narrative Reading of Buddhist Graphic Novels

Abstract

 The graphic novels of Buddhism, as a method of cognitive-narrative reading, are visualized in this paper. Through this paper, a theoretical framework of Karin Kukkonen applied in Studying Comics and Graphic Novels is applied to analyze the strategies of narrative, cognition, and visualization used in the present day in Buddhist graphic novels. Based on the ideas of multimodality, readerly cognition and the complexity of narrative developed by Kukkonen, the paper examines the sequential art as a construction of the life and philosophy of the Buddha by means of images, text, gutters and panel transitions. Graphic biographies of the Buddha make doctrinal teachings, including suffering, renunciation, enlightenment, and compassion, into easy-to-read pictorial stories, which stimulate the active involvement of the reader. It is possible through preempting the cognitive processes of meaning-making to argue that Buddhist graphic novels are neither simplified versions of the stories but rather complex and entertaining narrative forms as they appeal to readers emotionally, ethically, and intellectually. The paper illustrates the means through which visual metaphor, temporal overlay, focalization, and embodied cognition (which are uniquely comics) can be used to transmit spiritual philosophy into popular culture. Finally, the paper locates the Buddhist graphic novels as a significant point at which the religious discourse, visual narratives and cognitive narratology meet, extending the model by Kukkonen to the analysis of the sacred and philosophical narratives in books of graphic art.