CALL FOR PAPERS


The New Narrative? Comics in Literature, Film, and Art
An interdisciplinary conference University of Toronto 9-11 May
2008

Keynote speaker: Seth

Comics, whether in the form of novelistic illustrations, newspaper
serials, animated films, film adaptations, graphic novels, or
sequential art narratives, have been with us since the rise of
literature itself, yet until recently such media have never been
considered ?serious??-or at least, serious enough to be considered
novels that might be on the university syllabus. However, with the
recent rise of the graphic novel and related filmic adaptations,
comics?-otherwise generically grouped as ?comix??-garnering
considerable attention, are (yet again) being hailed as the ?next big
thing.? The (Canadian) publishing industry acknowledges that comix are
the largest growth area: is the future now?

But are comix literature? Are they more than Saturday morning
cartoons? Does the study of the genre belong in an art class? Are
illustrated novels and live action films really about the pictures and
not the narrative? How can the history of the form be reconciled with
consumer culture and the ill-defined categories of ?high? and ?low?
culture?

Papers which examine and interpret these ?new? narratives in
interdisciplinary forms are most welcome. Essays on novelistic
illustrations, newspaper serials, animated films, film adaptations,
graphic novels, or sequential art narratives may consider the following:

* graphic novels and auto/biography (Seth, Julie Doucet, Chris Ware?s
Jimmy Corrigan, Alison Bedchel?s Fun Home, David B?s Epileptic)
* the bande desinée and European influences (Tintin etc)
* illustrated and multi-media works (Barbara Hodgson, Umberto Eco,
Eddie Campbell)
* geopolitics/war and the graphic novel (Marjane Satrapi?s Persepolis;
Art Speigelman?s Maus; Joe Sacco?s oeuvre)
* conceptions of early illustrations as series (William Hogarth) and
engravings and caricatures (Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray)
* film adaptations of comics (Spiderman, Superman etc)
* Hokusai Katsushika and the ?invention? of manga
* the ?inventors? of the comic strip and their influences (Rodolphe
Toepffer [or Töpffer] ; Christophe?s Fenouillard Family and Camember
Sapper; Nadar; Cham; Grandville; Gustave Doré and Caran d' Ache)
* Canadian and American early comics (Albéric Bourgeois; Richard
Felton Outcault; Rudolph Dirks; Violet Keene)
* the Comics Code Authority and Frederic Wertham
* illustrations in literary novels (George Cruikshank; Thackeray)
* woodcut and ?silent? artists (Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Giacomo
Patri, Laurence Hyde)

Proposals should be 400-500 words and must clearly indicate
significance, the line of argument, principal texts considered, and
relation to existing scholarship (or originality). One email copy of
the proposal, along with a 100 word abstract and 50 word bio note must
be included, as an attachment in MS Word. Final papers should be no
more than 10 pages (not including artwork to be shown). Accepted
papers must be submitted in advance of the Conference. Deadline for
proposals is 05 January 2008. Please mail to:

Dr Andrew Lesk, Assistant Professor
Department of English, University of Toronto
170 St. George Street, #928, Toronto, ON M5R 2M8
E-mail: andrew.lesk_at_utoronto.ca


For an animated, colour poster version (printable in colour or b&w) of
this CFP, please go to
http://andrewlesk.com/newnarrative.jpg

For a MS Word plain text version (no pictures, printable in b&w), please
go to http://andrewlesk.com/newnarrative.rtf






-- 
Iain Robert Smith
Doctoral Student
Institute of Film and Television
School of American and Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
NG7 2RD