Page - 31 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

On the History and Hermeneutics of Comics | 31www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 17–44 trayed by lines indicting motion; lines that suggest vibration bring something tactile to the image. the sequence of the panels, which follows Western read- ing habits that work from left to right and from top to bottom, provides a time line. the presentation is inherently visual, but the overall impression engages all the senses. According to Gadamer, in our reception of the image we anticipate that the texture is comprehensible, that it will provide coherent meaning. We thus start with a premise of perfectness that is lost only when the subject of our reception appears incomprehensible. this anticipation is related not only to form, but also to content, with our expectation, Gadamer notes, of a relationship between truth and meaning.35 Gadamer starts from the genus of text and stays true, perhaps surprisingly, to the original orientation of hermeneutics, which dealt with the interpretation of authentic writings – texts with historical or religious claims. from this posi- tion, however, in an extension of heidegger’s description of the hermeneutical circle he postulates that understanding precedes every concrete act and is in effect inherently transcendent. Every method, every formal means of access is secondary to the interrelated act and framework of understanding. that posi- tion is adopted specifically with reference to works of art, to which Gadamer 35 Gadamer 1990, vol. ii, 62. Fig. 11: Albert Uderzo/René Goscinny, Asterix and the Soothsayer (Asterix Vol. 19), Stuttgart: Delta 1972, 30.