With the ‘Comics studies having finally arrived’, the young genre no longer has an obligation to justify its existence and significance. The legitimacy of the medium has been endorsed time and again by decades of scholarly works produced and being produced in the domain. Alongside this ongoing legitimation process, we are now witnessing a multifaceted engagement with a plethora of works – including both fiction and non-fiction – produced in the comics medium, leading to the rise of comics as a global literary phenomenon.

Graphic narratives with their unique and hybrid visual-verbal grammar, besides engaging the readers in active meaning-making endeavours amidst the panels and the gutters, are rife with possibilities for narrativisation of varieties of genres and moods. Lately, many scholarly discussions have been focussing not only on comics and graphic narratives from Euro-American traditions but also from the Global South including India, the Middle East and African countries. They showcase distinct and localised artistic styles and storytelling techniques, unfolding several alternative narrative traditions necessitating further brainstorming and debating on how the discourse surrounding comics has come to transcend the established norms of high and low art to become an inclusive global literary phenomenon. In keeping with the rapid growth in terms of both production and acceptance, one can witness the arrival of many sub-genres and forms like graphic life narratives, queer comics, graphic medicine, eco-comics, ocean comics and afro-futurist comics and an array of possibilities to tease out and deal with the specificities of both the local context and ties to other complex and contemporary global concerns from diverse perspectives.

There has been just a sparse work formally done to link World Literatures and Comics Studies by the likes of Monika Schmitz Emans and James Hodapp in recent times, who place Goethe and his concept of Weltlitteratur at the nexus of their discussions to contextualise non-Western comics within Goethe’s concepts and their direct descendants. This approach not only dismantles the specious borders erected by national literatures for Global South Comics through new epistemological geologies but also cordons off World Literatures from the politics of representation to some extent. It, therefore, calls for an appropriate academic platform for meaningful and critical deliberations on the popular acceptance of comics as an important and inclusive literary medium with possibilities for the future. Taking these initial attempts as cues and points of departure, the proposed conference intends to examine, discuss and deliberate on questions such as

How can comics be situated within the broader framework of world literature? How does their inclusion influence the evolving definitions of literary canonicity? What role do they play in the global literary landscape? How can the comic medium contribute to the amplification of marginalised voices and underrepresented stories in literature? How do readers – as passive consumers, active interpreters, critics, co-creators or fans – shape the meaning and cultural significance of comics? How do comics help in exploring global spaces and transnational identities? How can the representation of geographical and cultural landscapes in comics be analysed through the lens of spatiality and migration studies? How do digital comics in cyberspaces redefine traditional notions of authorship, narrative structure and reader engagement?

The possible topics to be explored in this conference include but are not limited to the following:

Themes and Sub-Themes:

1. Graphic Narratives as World Literature

• Comics as global cultural phenomenon

• Graphic adaptations

• Evolution of comics and graphic narratives

2. Comics Across Cultures

• Global South comics

• European and underground comics

• South Asian comic traditions

• Manga, manhua and fan culture

• Regional art forms in comics

3. Indian Comics and Graphic Narratives

• History and evolution in India

• Myth and folklore in comics

• Amar Chitra Katha

• Comics for social and political commentary

• Urban India in graphic narratives

• Partition, colonialism and postcolonial identity

4. History and Memory

• Representations of historical events

• War, trauma and memory

• Satire and irony to represent history

• Self-reflexivity and authenticity of representations

• Resistance narratives

5. Comics and Human Experiences

• Representing caste, class, race and identity

• Gender, sexuality and queer narratives

• Migration and displacement

• Indigenous knowledge and experiences

• Childhood in comics

6. Comics and Decolonial Ecology

• Depicting colonialism and environmental racism

• Indigenous ecological wisdom

• Comics for eco-activism

7. Graphic Medicine

• Illness and disability

• Mental health in comics

• Comics for patient education

• Trauma and healing narratives

8. Food and Comics

• Food and memory in graphic narratives

• Representations of eating disorder

• Culinary culture and identity

9. Other Genres and Trends

• Superheroes, fantasy and futurism

• Biographies, memoirs and graphic journalism

• Sci-fi and fantasy

• Comics in education

• Digital comics

10. The Language of Comics

• Panel composition and pacing

• Visual metaphors and symbols

• Experimental storytelling

• Colours, lines, and shading

• Methodologies: structuralism, semiotics, narratology

We invite original, unpublished and well-researched papers on the aforementioned themes and sub-themes from faculty members, independent researchers and research scholars enrolled in universities or research institutions. Each presenter will be allocated fifteen minutes for presentation and five minutes for discussion.

Provide your details and upload your abstracts (200 words) here:https://forms.gle/NQEqvGGVMWQ4HRij6

NOTES

• The conference will be held exclusively in-person, with no online participation options available.

• Selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed journal with an ISSN number.

• For any queries, please contact efluiwlconference2025@gmail.com

Important Dates:

Abstract Submission Deadline : 5 December 2024

Acceptance of Abstracts : 12 December 2024

Registration : 17 December 2024

Full paper submission : 30 January 2025

Registration Fee:

Research Scholars (without accommodation) : Rs. 1500/-

Research Scholars (with accommodation) : Rs. 2500/-

Faculty (without accommodation) : Rs. 3500/-

Faculty (with accommodation) : Rs. 4500/-

International Scholars : USD 75/-

Website: https://www.efluniversity.ac.in/

CFP Link: https://www.efluniversity.ac.in/EFLU%20Graphic%20Narratives%20and%20Comics%20Studies%20Conference%202025.pdf