Leeds Central Library
November 3– 4, 2016
Genre has played an active role in generating and shaping our knowledge and understanding of comics. It is a term that has been used to describe the medium itself (e.g. comics as a genre of literature), formats within the medium (e.g. the graphic novel as a genre of comics), and the various thematic clusters of stories told within comics (romance, western, horror etc.). Comics may support and adhere to the conventions, styles, structures and effects of a given genre, or they might redefine, challenge, and violate its definitions and boundaries through their form and content. While comics scholars have undertaken studies of genre in comics – particularly a strong and expanding corpus focusing upon the superhero genre, for instance – the subject remains relatively underdeveloped in Comics Studies by comparison with other fields such as Film Studies and Literary Studies. Comics Forum 2016, the eighth event in the annual conference series, will present a sustained discussion upon a wide range of subjects relating to comics and genre, and abstracts are invited for talks to be given at the event.
Subjects for discussion may include, but are not limited to:
- Specific genres or sub-genres in comics
- Genre blending and genre mash-ups in comics
- Genres in and/or across national comics traditions
- Bodies of work in a specific genre by an artist/writer
- Comics adaptations of genre works
- Comics and genre theory, or theoretical approaches to genre in comics
- Temporal approaches to genre in comics, or genre comics as social/historical constructs
- Comparative approaches to genre in comics
- Questions of genre and form
- Association of specific genres with gender and/or race
- Issues of production, distribution, censorship and reception of certain genre comics
- Arguments for/against genre classifications in comics
Proposals of 250 words are invited for talks of up to 20 minutes in length, and should be emailed along with a short biography (around 100 words) to comicsforum@hotmail.co.uk. Please put the phrase ‘CF2016 Paper Submission’ in your subject line. Proposals for panels of either 60 or 75 minutes are also welcome. If you wish to submit a panel proposal, please include the line ‘CF2016 Panel Submission’ in your subject line and make sure you include an indication of the panel’s length and biographies of all your speakers in your abstract. The deadline for submission is 25th July 2016 and notification of acceptance or rejection will be emailed by or before 8th August 2016.