CFP: Race and Comics: The Politics of Representation in Sequential Art | NeMLA 2016 (Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2015)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/75816/cfp-race-and-comics-politics-representation-sequential-art-nemla
Discussion published by Rafael Ponce-Cordero on Sunday, July 19, 2015
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Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 30, 2015
Location: Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields: Ethnic History / Studies, Political Science
This panel welcomes papers that examine the treatment of race and racial relations in comic books, whether in superhero narratives, graphic memoirs, web comics, or other forms of sequential art both inside and outside the United States. How are comics used to document and represent racialized identities? How have the medium and its surrounding fan communities adapted earlier content to speak to current topics?
Submit abstracts (300 words maximum) by September 30, 2015 to Session ID#15963 at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15963
Comics have long been filled with depictions and discussions, overt or implied, of race and ethnicity. Racist portrayals persist, from Belgium’s Tintin to Mexico’s Memín, and in the U.S. not only in the so-called “darky” iconography of yore but in contemporary racist representations of the current President, even as an issue of Spider-Man guest-starring Barack Obama becomes one of the top-selling comic books. Comics have also provided spaces to explore social issues, as in Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams’s breakthrough 1970s Green Lantern/Green Arrow series that examined structural racism. Diversity as well remains an important consideration in how comics provide not only a realistic view of race in the world but also a medium for authors to represent their own experiences related to racial identity. There is an ongoing (and controversial) trend of increasing diversity in superhero narratives by making some previously white characters non-white. Superhero teams such as the X-Men, throughout their history at times racially monotone or racially diverse, have nevertheless been read as allegories for civil rights battles by comparing bodies marked as different to racialized bodies. Fans produce their own content to identify racial diversity or its lack, whether at conventions such as Cosplaying While Black, or in academic discussions and museum gallery installations such as John Jenning’s Black Kirby, which “remixes” Jack Kirby’s superheroes to reflect topics relevant in African American studies and lives. And memoirs such as American Born Chinese, Persepolis, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian explicitly address those subjects and how they consider racialized identities. With superheroes including Araña, Aztek, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Hiro Hamada, Karate Kid, Dr. Light, Miles Morales, Kyle Rayner, Red Wolf, Shadow Hero, Ohiyesa Smith, John Stewart, Storm, Vibe, and War Machine, it is clear that racial relations are an important concern for artists and readers of this medium.
In spring 2016, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) will meet in Hartford, Connecticut, for its 47th Annual Convention. Every year, this event affords NeMLA’s principal opportunity to carry on a tradition of lively research and pedagogical exchange in language and literature. Please join us for this convention, which will feature approximately 400 sessions, dynamic speakers, and cultural events. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable. Full information regarding the 2016 Call for Papers may be found on NeMLA's website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp
Contact Email: rponcecordero@keene.edu
URL: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15963
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