New Formats of Interaction Between the Author and the Reader as a Parameter of Linguistic Creativity in <i>Spider-Man</i>, <i>The Incredible Hulk</i>, and <i>Daredevil</i> Comic Books

Abstract

According to linguistic creativity studies, the text is a product of creative activity of the author, who uses linguistic innovations and creative means mainly at the lexical level. However, linguistic creativity can manifest itself at any linguistic level. The present research featured the manifestation of linguistic creativity at the level of communication and discourse. The paper describes the formats of interaction between the author and the reader in the text of a comic book, which acts as a parameter of linguistic creativity on the communicative and discursive level. American comic books about Spider-Man, Hulk, and Daredevil (1960s–1980s) contain the traditional narrator – reader / listener interaction when the author comments on the real events and gives detailed information about the devices and appliances used by the characters. New creative formats include we (creators) – you (reader) and we (creators and readers). In the we (creators) – you (reader) format, authors share their opinions on the current comic book, publish teasers about the next issue, congratulate themselves and the personages on the work done, and openly communicate with readers through letters to the editorial office. The we (creators and readers) format presupposes a joint participation of authors and readers in the story. These formats emerge under the influence of temporal, cultural, social, economic, and political factors and are mediated by the discursive practices of rotation, dissemination, approximation, convergence, etc.

Keywords

• linguistic creativity
• creative text
• comics
• communicative and discursive level
• author – reader interaction
• formats of interaction in comic books
• discursive practices
• discursive practice of convergence
• discursive practice of self-presentation