CFP: German-language Comics and Graphic Novels by Minority Authors

Conference
Panel at
51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Marriott Copley Place
Boston
Stichtag: 15.09.2019

Graphic narratives including comics and graphic novels continue to garner attention by researchers and instructors across the modern languages. German Studies is no exception as the last decade has seen comics studies contributions about themes as widespread as history, manga, journalism, and foreign-language pedagogy. Lately, graphic narratives about the experience of migrants have been particularly pertinent in publications and academic panels. Comics and graphic novels have thus tackled the experience of migrants who came to a German-speaking country decades ago (as was the case for the Mozambican guest workers at the center of Birgit Weyhe’s Madgermanes) as well as the stories of those who only recently arrived in Germany (as thematized, for example, in Paula Bulling’s Im Land der Frühaufsteher). These two recent and well-publicized examples indicate that historically marginalized groups of people are increasingly more visible in German-language comics and graphic novels.

Nevertheless, the authors of these two and other narratives about marginalized people are not themselves affiliated with a minority population. Consequently, their stories and drawing styles do not give a full voice to marginalized identities. Our panel is a space to address this gap. By inviting papers that discuss comics and graphic novels created by authors from ethnic, linguistic, gender, sexual, or otherwise marginalized populations, we seek to add a new line of inquiry to the growing body of German-language comics research. In this spirit, we call for papers on graphic narratives that may or may not specifically address themes of marginalization, but because of their authorship represent the hitherto neglected community of non-majority comics and graphic novel creators.

Questions may include, but are not limited to, the following: How do graphic narratives by minority authors differ narratively, thematically, and/or visually from those by majority authors? What national and transnational influences do they draw on? What is the (publishing) history of works by minority authors? Which platforms and networks do they frequent? And how are these works advertised and received? We explicitly encourage contributions about works from all German-speaking communities including artistic production from Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Namibia etc.

Please submit a 300 word abstract by September 15, 2019 to https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17972. (Use the link to submit the abstract.)

Panel Organizers: Julia Ludewig jludewig@allegheny.edu and Lynn M. Kutch kutch@kutztown.edu

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