Framing Actuality: Frame Theory, Graphic Narrative, and (Post)-Documentary

Abstract

Connecting the role of the documentarian to a lawyer, this chapter discusses the theories that inform this study. First, the chapter traces the development of frame theory with its foundations in sociology and linguistics, and outlines its application to medial artifacts. Cognitive narratology is applied to account for the functions of frames in the comprehension of narrative texts. Second, the chapter explores documentary as a genre frame. The history and the technological foundation of documentary—for example, the “myth of photographic truth”—are discussed; following, the chapter addresses recent shifts in the perception of medial truth claims, connecting post-truth politics to notions of a “post-documentary” or “post-photographic” era. Third, the graphic narrative book is discussed as a medial frame that posits materiality against the more ephemeral digital media. The particular mediality of comics presents a unique way to materialize witness accounts in the mode of oral history.