The current surge of graphic novels in French, from Marjane Satrapi's oft-celebrated Persepolis to Jessica Oublié's lesser-known-yet-prize-winning Péyi An Nou, signifies a shift in priorities for Francophone storytellers. Graphic novels create meaning through the interplay of text and image; they privilege non-linear storytelling and thinking; and they prioritize accessibility over erudition. As a marginalized genre, graphic novels are a welcome home for those writing and illustrating from the margins of society. In a graphic novel, what we see is never the full story; instead, we are constantly challenged into new modes of "seeing" and "reading" that question assumptions about the consumption of literature and art. One could argue that graphic novels inherently engage with Quijano and Mignolo's definition of decoloniality (that which challenges our ways of thinking, sensing, believing, doing, and living) through their multi-modal mediums; as a result, graphic novels often address scenes of erasure in colonial History through a necessarily "pluriversal" praxis. This panel seeks to showcase the creative, experimental, and ground-breaking work being done in contemporary French and Francophone graphic novels. We welcome papers that explore aspects the seen and unseen in Francophone graphic novels through any number of thematic, critical and aesthetic frameworks. Please submit abstracts of 200-300 words with a short bio in French or English on the NeMLA website by October 15, 2024.

https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21237