From Visual Novel to Graphic Novel: The Debate between Text and Image in the Ontology of Hybrid Narratives

Abstract

This article performs a prolix examination on the theoretical aspects behind the oscillating ontology of both hybrid media “visual novel” and “graphic novel”. The main purpose is to elucidate the way in which these two media share a common parallelism with other media such as literature and cinema. Therefore, taking both video game and comic as a case study, the present paper addresses the implications within their inherent ambiguity and the difficulty of establishing classificatory variables to encapsulate them. In this context, it is relevant to explore the tension between the two elements of their compound names and the resulting oscillation between the literary-textual aspect and the visual aspect, ultimately increased by the debate “narrativity versus interactivity” orientated towards “graphic philosophical essays”.