The Valve - A Literary Organ | CFP: Disability and Graphic Narrative

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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

CFP: Disability and Graphic Narrative

Posted by John Holbo on 02/06/07 at 11:10 AM

Josh Lukin’s better half has politely requested that I post a CFP for an MLA panel on Disability and Graphic Narrative. Given the themes of my posts of late, it would be churlish to refuse. Under the fold it is:

Do you like comic books and graphic novels? Are you interested in disability and illness? Do you like reading about disabled or ill characters in comics and graphic narratives? Then this is the academic panel for YOU! The Disability Studies Division of the MLA seeks panelists for the 2007 meeting in Chicago. How does the medium of the graphic narrative open new vistas onto the world of literary and cultural representations of disability, chronic/terminal or mental illness? Explore notions and instances of mutantcy, supercripping, passing, overcoming, or accepting/rejecting one’s “bodily destiny”. Kelley Puckett and Warren Pleece’s Kinetic (chronic illness in adolescence), Tom Batiuk’s Lisa’s Story (breast cancer detection, treatment and recovery), Gary Trudeau’s The Long Road Home (traumatic amputation during the Iraq war, evacuation and rehabilitation), Greg Fox’s Kyle’s Bed and Breakfast (traumatic paralysis), Allison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For (multiple sclerosis) and Peter Milligan’s Skin (thalidomide) are only a few texts among many which you might address. Analyses of superheroes in mainstream comics (Daredevil, Birds of Prey, Strong Guy, Iron Man, X-Men), independent ‘zines, online-only comic strips or panels are also welcome.

Brief (one page) abstracts should be e-mailed as Word (.doc) attachments or included in the body of the e-mail itself, by March 15, 2007, to Ann Keefer: vatergrrl-at-yahoo-dot-com. Please mention in your abstract if you will need any audiovisual equipment for your presentation. Selected papers will be delivered orally at the MLA and should run no longer than 15 minutes.

I’ve been reading Superhero: the Secret Origin of a Genre [amazon], by Peter Coogan - which is pretty ok, but it’s got the plug-ugliest typesetting I have ever seen. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I just finished the obligatory bit about how supervillains will have their wounds that don’t heal, which often explain their hatred of the hero. The author duly notes that Lex Luthor is fairly, er, lame in that regard. (Baldness isn’t a disability. Get over it. Or maybe it is a disability. I guess if you were just a kid it would be pretty horrible. But does that make it a disability? I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem a sufficient reason to kill Superman. It’s a disfigurement, which is, after all, the most common thing for the villain to suffer. He’ll walk around swathed in bandages from head to toe, ejaculating the single least plausible line under the circumstances: ‘Bah! These fools have nothing more to teach me!’ Then he’s all armored up and off to fight Reed Richards and Bob’s your uncle) Well. That’s all I got tonight.

Comments

No mention of Doom Patrol again? You’d think that the Morrison Doom Patrol would be made to order for something like this, what with their disabilities pretty much explicitly figured as placing them within a discourse that lets them perceive parts of the world that the non-disabled can’t, and their metatextuality.

By on 02/06/07 at 01:31 PM | Permanent link to this comment

You’re right, Rich, I need to get me head out of all this Silver Age nonsense. No, seriously. The reason is that, oddly enough, I actually haven’t read the Morrison Doom Patrol run. Shocking, I know.

By John Holbo on 02/06/07 at 08:00 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Rich—As I was initially bouncing around ideas about disability and graphic narrative, Doom Patrol was first and foremost in the list, as it IS very much made to order. Later, closer to the time the CFP had to be written (condensed version for MLA newsletter, elaborated for wider distribution), I decided to forgo those titles which prompt an immediate recognition and focus instead on (possibly) less well known titles and writers. If I receive a quality proposal on Doom Patrol, and it seems to mesh with other top-drawer proposals, then it will be on the panel.

Ann Keefer

By on 02/08/07 at 07:58 AM | Permanent link to this comment

How did my name end up on Ann’s comment? Can that be changed?

By on 02/09/07 at 06:12 AM | Permanent link to this comment

I guess she was signed in as you, Josh. (I was wondering about that.) Anyway, I can’t change the author. I could just delete the thing. I have opted to stick her name in the comment as a signature.

By John Holbo on 02/09/07 at 06:22 AM | Permanent link to this comment

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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

CFP: Disability and Graphic Narrative

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