BD & graphic novels: Medium, Message, and the Politics of the Visual (Panel)
Submit proposals to https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21959Primary Area / Secondary Area
French and Francophone
Modality
Hybrid: The session will be held in-person but a few remote presentations may be included.
Chair(s)
Cris(tina) Robu (Davidson College)
Abstract
This board-sponsored session invites papers that explore Francophone bandes dessinées and graphic novels as rich, multi-layered sites of cultural regeneration, resistance, and reimagination. Drawing on Marshall McLuhan’s assertion that “the medium is the message,” we ask: how does the graphic form itself participate in the regeneration of narrative, identity, and memory? How do BD artists across the Francophone world reshape histories and futures by harnessing the dynamic interplay of text and image?
We encourage critical work that considers how BD and graphic novels not only reflect but renew modes of storytelling, community engagement, and political critique. Whether through formal experimentation, autobiographical intervention, or genre-blending hybridity, these visual narratives offer fertile ground for analyzing shifting cultural landscapes.
Guiding questions may include (but are not limited to):
- How do bandes dessinées contribute to the regeneration of collective memory, especially in the aftermath of trauma, colonialism, or displacement?
- In what ways do visual narratives reimagine identity, gender, and queerness as fluid, embodied, and regenerative experiences?
- How does the medium foster cultural and linguistic regeneration in minoritized or diasporic communities?
- What aesthetic strategies are used to reclaim erased histories or challenge hegemonic narratives through graphic storytelling?
- How do BD works engage with questions of migration, race, class, and social inequity, and what role does the visual medium play in renewing these conversations?
- In what ways does the BD form evolve—through digital media, formal innovation, or collaborative practices—to regenerate its own narrative and political potential?
- How do graphic novels function as tools for intergenerational dialogue, offering continuity and transformation across time and space?
- What is the role of humor, fantasy, or speculative fiction in envisioning regenerative futures within Francophone comics?
- How do lesser-known or marginalized creators revitalize the BD tradition, offering new stories, forms, and readerships?
We welcome papers from a wide range of interdisciplinary and theoretical frameworks, including visual culture, media studies, queer theory, postcolonial studies, trauma studies, feminist theory, and transnational approaches. Papers may focus on individual works, thematic clusters, or broader movements, with an emphasis on underrepresented creators and communities.
Please submit abstracts of 200–250 words in French or English.
This board-sponsored session invites papers that explore Francophone bandes dessinées and graphic novels as rich, multi-layered sites of cultural regeneration, resistance, and reimagination. Drawing on Marshall McLuhan’s assertion that “the medium is the message,” we ask: how does the graphic form itself participate in the regeneration of narrative, identity, and memory? How do BD artists across the Francophone world reshape histories and futures by harnessing the dynamic interplay of text and image?
We encourage critical work that considers how BD and graphic novels not only reflect but renew modes of storytelling, community engagement, and political critique. Whether through formal experimentation, autobiographical intervention, or genre-blending hybridity, these visual narratives offer fertile ground for analyzing shifting cultural landscapes.
Guiding questions may include (but are not limited to):
- How do bandes dessinées contribute to the regeneration of collective memory, especially in the aftermath of trauma, colonialism, or displacement?
- In what ways do visual narratives reimagine identity, gender, and queerness as fluid, embodied, and regenerative experiences?
- How does the medium foster cultural and linguistic regeneration in minoritized or diasporic communities?
- What aesthetic strategies are used to reclaim erased histories or challenge hegemonic narratives through graphic storytelling?
- How do BD works engage with questions of migration, race, class, and social inequity, and what role does the visual medium play in renewing these conversations?
- In what ways does the BD form evolve—through digital media, formal innovation, or collaborative practices—to regenerate its own narrative and political potential?
- How do graphic novels function as tools for intergenerational dialogue, offering continuity and transformation across time and space?
- What is the role of humor, fantasy, or speculative fiction in envisioning regenerative futures within Francophone comics?
- How do lesser-known or marginalized creators revitalize the BD tradition, offering new stories, forms, and readerships?
We welcome papers from a wide range of interdisciplinary and theoretical frameworks, including visual culture, media studies, queer theory, postcolonial studies, trauma studies, feminist theory, and transnational approaches. Papers may focus on individual works, thematic clusters, or broader movements, with an emphasis on underrepresented creators and communities.
Please submit abstracts of 200–250 words in French or English.
Description
This session invites papers exploring bandes dessinées and graphic novels as dynamic sites of regeneration and resistance in the Francophone world. We welcome analyses of how BD artists address colonial legacies, queer and feminist politics, migration, race, class, and intergenerational memory.
