THE GOD OF MISCHIEF: A CASE STUDY OF PICTORIAL METAPHORS IN COMICS

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the study of monomodal metaphors of the pictorial type could serve as a tool for analyzing the emotional state of a character. By documenting the visual representations of the most dominant emotions, we try to explain what makes the character of Loki Laufeyson evil and why he emerges as a villain, even when the story is told from his point of view. Within the framework presented by Forceville (2005), we make an inventory of pictorial markers which cue emotions such as anger, surprise, sadness, pride, fear, annoyance, contempt, disgust, and jealousy. We then compare our results to the emotion metaphors identified by Kövecses (2000) to determine their verbal counterparts. The results suggest that the basic-level emotions could easily be identified by indexical signs, while those that present their subordinate-level categories and non-prototypical emotions also require the use of pictorial runes.