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MELUS plans on publishing a special issue devoted to multi-ethnic American graphic narrative. The scope of this issue could include the theoretical, literary, and historical sweep of graphic narrative and its links to multi-ethnic discourse. Possible topics could include, but are certainly not limited to:
* The evolution of ethnic representation in comics since the 1980s (presented through the work of such artists as Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez, Adrian Tomine, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Kyle Baker, Ho Che Anderson, Howard Cruise, and R. Kikuo Johnson)
* The coinage of “graphic novel” (by Will Eisner) as a literary form and its links to multi-ethnic expression
* The growth of graphic novels as a vehicle of American ethnic expression in the wake of Art Spiegleman’s groundbreaking Maus
* The ways in which recent films have adapted comic-inspired figures to explore the ethnic other
* The impact of Japanese Magna on American comics and culture
* Problems of ethnoracial representation in the underground comix of the 1960s
* The uses of classic superheroes, historic and contemporary, as images of the ethnic outsider
* Comic journalism, such as that found in the work of Joe Sacco, as a medium to explore ethnoracial conflicts
* Tropes of the monster, mutant, or zombie as a figuration of “the alien”
* Graphic narratives of the U.S. border, both in south (e.g., the work of Los Bros Hernandez) and in the Canadian north (e.g, the comic art of Seth, Julie Douchet, Ho Che Anderson, and Chester Brown)
* The cross-fertilization of comics and more traditional fictional narrative (such as that surrounding Michael Chabon’s character, The Escapist)
All essay submissions should be between 5,000 and 7,500 words, including notes and works cited. Contributors should format submissions based on the MLA Style Manual, 2nd edition. Manuscripts emailed as attached MS Word files are strongly encouraged. If mailed, please send along a SASE if requesting return of copies.
Please address all manuscripts for and queries about
this special issue to:
Derek Parker Royal
Department of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Commerce, Texas 75429-3011
E-mail: Derek_Royal@tamu-commerce.edu
Fax: 903-886-5980
Only members of The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States may publish articles in MELUS. For more information on MELUS and its journal, please visit the MELUS web site at http://www.melus.org
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