Three Day International Conference on Graphic Narratives and Comics Studies as World Literature Phenomena

With the ‘Comics studies having finally arrived’, the young genre no longer has an obligation to justify its existence and significance. The legitimacy of the medium has been endorsed time and again by decades of scholarly works produced and being produced in the domain. Alongside this ongoing legitimation process, we are now witnessing a multifaceted engagement with a plethora of works – including both fiction and non-fiction – produced in the comics medium, leading to the rise of comics as a global literary phenomenon.

Graphic narratives with their unique and hybrid visual-verbal grammar, besides engaging the readers in active meaning-making endeavours amidst the panels and the gutters, are rife with possibilities for narrativisation of varieties of genres and moods. Lately, many scholarly discussions have been focussing not only on comics and graphic narratives from Euro-American traditions but also from the Global South including India, the Middle East and African countries. They showcase distinct and localised artistic styles and storytelling techniques, unfolding several alternative narrative traditions necessitating further brainstorming and debating on how the discourse surrounding comics has come to transcend the established norms of high and low art to become an inclusive global literary phenomenon. In keeping with the rapid growth in terms of both production and acceptance, one can witness the arrival of many sub-genres and forms like graphic life narratives, queer comics, graphic medicine, eco-comics, ocean comics and afro-futurist comics and an array of possibilities to tease out and deal with the specificities of both the local context and ties to other complex and contemporary global concerns from diverse perspectives.

There has been just a sparse work formally done to link World Literatures and Comics Studies by the likes of Monika Schmitz Emans and James Hodapp in recent times, who place Goethe and his concept of Weltlitteratur at the nexus of their discussions to contextualise non-Western comics within Goethe’s concepts and their direct descendants. This approach not only dismantles the specious borders erected by national literatures for Global South Comics through new epistemological geologies but also cordons off World Literatures from the politics of representation to some extent. It, therefore, calls for an appropriate academic platform for meaningful and critical deliberations on the popular acceptance of comics as an important and inclusive literary medium with possibilities for the future.

The possible topics to be explored in this conference include but are not limited to the following:

Themes and Sub-Themes

1. Graphic Narratives as World Literature

Comics as global cultural phenomenon
Graphic adaptations
Evolution of comics and graphic narratives

2. Comics Across Cultures

Global South comics
European and underground comics
South Asian comic traditions
Manga, manhua and fan culture
Regional art forms in comics

3. Indian Comics and Graphic Narratives

History and evolution in India
Myth and folklore in comics
Amar Chitra Katha
Comics for social and political commentary
Urban India in graphic narratives
Partition, colonialism and postcolonial identity

4. History and Memory

Representations of historical events
War, trauma and memory
Satire and irony to represent history
Self-reflexivity and authenticity of representations
Resistance narratives

5. Comics and Human Experiences

Representing caste, class, race and identity
Gender, sexuality and queer narratives
Migration and displacement
Indigenous knowledge and experiences
Childhood in comics

6. Comics and Decolonial Ecology

Depicting colonialism and environmental racism
Indigenous ecological wisdom
Comics for eco-activism

7. Graphic Medicine

Illness and disability
Mental health in comics
Comics for patient education
Trauma and healing narratives

8. Food and Comics

Food and memory in graphic narratives
Representations of eating disorder
Culinary culture and identity

9. Other Genres and Trends

Superheroes, fantasy and futurism
Biographies, memoirs and graphic journalism
Sci-fi and fantasy
Comics in education
Digital comics

10. The Language of Comics

Panel composition and pacing
Visual metaphors and symbols
Experimental storytelling
Colours, lines, and shading
Methodologies: structuralism, semiotics, narratology

We invite original, unpublished and well-researched papers on the aforementioned themes and sub-themes from faculty members, independent researchers and research scholars enrolled in universities or research institutions. Each presenter will be allocated fifteen minutes for presentation and five minutes for discussion.

Provide your details and upload your abstracts (200 words) here: https://forms.gle/NQEqvGGVMWQ4HRij6

NOTES

• The conference will be held exclusively in-person, with no online participation options available.
• Selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed journal with an ISSN number.
• For any queries, please contact efluiwlconference2025@gmail.com

Important Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline : 5 December 2024

Acceptance of Abstracts : 12 December 2024

Registration : 17 December 2024

Full paper submission : 30 January 2025

Registration Fee

Research Scholars (without accommodation) : Rs. 1500/-

Research Scholars (with accommodation) : Rs. 2500/-

Faculty (without accommodation) : Rs. 3500/-

Faculty (with accommodation) : Rs. 4500/-

International Scholars : USD 75/-

Website: https://www.efluniversity.ac.in/

CFP Link: https://www.efluniversity.ac.in/EFLU%20Graphic%20Narratives%20and%20Comics%20Studies%20Conference%202025.pdf

 efluiwlconference2025@gmail.com

 Mrudula Madhusoodanan