Comics conference in Canada

[Dudley]

McGill University, Montreal
March 20-21, 2004
10th Annual Graduate Symposium on Language and Literature:
"Infinite Impressions: Literature and the Promiscuity of Text"

Panel Topic:

"Comics and the reproduction of history."

Possible topics surrounding the representation of history in comics could
be:

The cultural contexts of comics—the intersections between literature and
life
--Historical analyses of the production and consumption of comic books
--The symbiotic, mutually influential relationship between comic creators
their fans and critics
--Comic book collaborations and the questions surrounding multiple
creatorship
--"Living comics": comic book writing as process rather than product
--The interactions between comics and film—aesthetic and/or historical
approaches

The representation of autobiographical, historical and journalistic genres
in comics
--Constructions of the self and identity (gender, racial, class);
reproduction of memory in graphic storytelling
--Comics and the unconscious imagination
--Historio-graphic approaches in comic book fiction
--Aesthetic analyses of comics: analyses of the unique effects produced by
the interactions between text and image and how historical, social and
political content is affected by its encounter with the comic book medium

The vocabulary of film is often imported into discussions of comics because
they are both forms of visual storytelling. However, to conceive of comics
exclusively on the same terms as film ultimately renders the "9th art" a
silent, frozen adjunct of the cinema. Having stated this caveat, paper
proposals centered on film studies need not immediately be rejected on the
fact that they are not comics. There may be a convergence with the themes
and topics I have proposed.

Please send 300-word paper abstracts to Stephanie Boluk [chouxsalad@mac.com]
by January 26th, 2004.

[Trout]

Er...

No.

- Trout