Upcoming Special Issue of Modern Fiction Studies

Graphic Narratives
Guest Editors: Marianne DeKoven and Hillary L. Chute

Deadline for Submission: 1 March 2006

This special issue seeks essays on book-length works composed in the medium of comics. The emergence of graphic narratives-also called "graphic novels"-combines a sophisticated and experimental awareness of form with a powerful political awareness of comics as a mass medium. The book publication of Art Spiegelman's _Maus: A Survivor's Tale_ brought graphic narratives to the academy; in the two decades since the publication of the first volume of Maus, the field of graphic narratives has expanded significantly.

This issue endeavors to expand the discourse around graphic narratives from a focus on one author to multiple authors and a serious examination of the form itself. What critical directions have emerged since Maus? How do graphic narratives fit into literary studies? What literary and/or theoretical traditions, movements, or modes provide useful frameworks or methodologies for understanding this form? How do contemporary graphic narratives agree and disagree in their conception of the work of aesthetics and the political? How do they construct meaning in navigating the relationship between the visual and the written? How and why do many of today's most significant graphic narratives work in-between or reject the discourses of fiction and nonfiction? Why do historical and/or autobiographical graphic narratives appear to be the strongest emerging genre in the field? This list is not meant to be exhaustive; any perspectives that produce rigorous, insightful, situated readings ar!
 e welcome as are interdisciplinary approaches.

Authors are encouraged to use images from the texts in their essays; however, authors are responsible for all necessary permissions. Articles should range in length from 6,000 to 9,000 words (not counting notes and Works Cited) and should follow the current edition of the MLA Style Manual. Please submit two copies of the essay along with a cover sheet that lists author's name, essay title, mailing address, phone number, and email address. MFS does not accept electronic submissions. Please mail essays and cover letter to the following address:
Editors, Modern Fiction Studies
Department of English
500 Oval Drive
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN   47907-2038

Queries may be sent to the above address or by email to mfs_at_cla.purdue.edu. 
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/Academic/engl/mfs/

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Received on Fri Sep 16 2005 - 11:11:55 EDT