This thesis examines hybrid novels – novels in which graphic devices like photographs, drawings and experimental typography are integrated into the written text. Within hybrid novels, word and image combine to create a text that is neither purely written, nor purely visual. Although not new, hybrid novels are increasingly appearing in commercial publishing, and increasingly recognised as an insufficiently explained phenomenon by both literary critics and academics. Book reviews and essays show that readers and critics accustomed to conventional novels can find hybrid novels perplexing. They ask: What are these images? What are they doing in novels? How does one ‘read’ them? These questions point to the need for new approaches to the analysis and critique of hybrid texts, approaches that account for the interplay between words and images. This thesis proposes that Visual Communication Designers – those versed in both the verbal and the visual – offer useful analytical tools and critique for the study of hybrid texts. So the research asks: How could a designer’s particular knowledge of wordimage interplay explain the function of graphic devices in hybrid novels? A preliminary study of fifteen hybrid novels develops: criteria for identifying hybrid novels; a typology of graphic devices in hybrid novels – photographs, illustrative elements, unconventional typesetting, ephemera and diagrams; and a set of analytical tools to critique the effectiveness of the graphic devices in hybrid novels. Then, a primary study uses the analytical tools to critique the graphic devices in three exemplar hybrid novels: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts and Dave Egger’s You Shall Know Our Velocity. This thesis is practice-led in that an issue identified through my design practice led to the research, and analytical and critical tools derived from practice are applied as research methods. The research also draws upon a theoretical framework from the emergent field of Visual Studies, where scholars call for the interdisciplinary study of hybrid texts in a critically acute and widely accessible way. Finally, this thesis is itself a hybrid text; a combination of graphic devices and writing form parts of the argument.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on November 12, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2008. / The full-text of this Submission is currently under embargo. It will be available for download on Thu Sep 17 2009. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-133).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-133).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Communication Studies, Northwestern University, 2007. / Adviser: Dilip P. Gaonkar. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Tom Anderson, Florida State University, School of Visual Arts and Dance, Dept. of Art Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 22, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000. / Thesis advisor: John Larkin. [In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Technology Education.]. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.