[Comicsstudiessociety] Decolonising Comics Studies

Wed Jul 31 19:08:56 EDT 2019

One of the unusual books in my collection is Kompot. It’s an anthology written & drawn by talented contributors in Israel & Poland.

One edition I have is completely in English. However, I have another edition which has Hebrew stories in the back and the same stories in Polish in the front (depending on how you hold the book).

I wonder how many graphic books are published in such a manner.

As for books in translation, when I was a kid, I assumed that the Tintin and Asterix books were English because those were the only editions I had ever seen.

SMB

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 31, 2019, at 5:11 PM, comicsstudiessociety-request at lists.osu.edu wrote:
> 
> Send ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list submissions to
>    comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>    https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>    comicsstudiessociety-request at lists.osu.edu
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>    comicsstudiessociety-owner at lists.osu.edu
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of ComicsStudiesSociety digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Decolonising    Comics    Studies (Gardner, Jared)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 21:11:44 +0000
> From: "Gardner, Jared" <gardner.236 at osu.edu>
> To: Charles Hatfield <charles.hatfield at gmail.com>, discussion list for
>    members    of the Comics Studies Society
>    <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Comicsstudiessociety] [EXTERNAL] Re: Decolonising    Comics
>    Studies
> Message-ID: <F28644BC-D8EA-4CCC-8D0C-AB11C3827444 at osu.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Not to be at all contrarian to the spirit of this call, as it is one with which I am in full agreement. But we need to keep in mind that part of the challenge lies at the institutional level. In the U.S., our field took root in English departments not because English studies is more congenial to comics than are, say Italian  or East Asian Studies, but because English departments were historically among the largest in our colleges and universities, with the result that they had curricular flexibility to adopt classes and free up personnel to teach classes in the area. When the hiring freezes and cuts came, they hit all departments equally, but they were felt first and most intensely by smaller programs, especially language programs. In other words, there are many fewer specialists in the U.S. academy dedicated to non-Anglophone comics first and foremost for larger institutional/economic reasons that are not likely to change any time soon. I know when I was editor at Inks, look
> ing for a qualified reader who specialized in Israeli or Czech comics almost always, if one or two folks in the States were not available, led me abroad.
> 
> Further, making matters harder, is the fact that many English departments are actively discouraged from teaching comics in translation from other countries. Certainly it is the case in my university that while I can (and do) teach an occasional comic originally in Flemish or Japanese or Italian, etc, I could not offer a whole class on X comics in translation because of (understandable) territorial concerns and concurrences, even as the program (understandably) protecting its territory is not itself in a position in terms of personnel to be able to offer it. Folks are often drawn to panels which they think will help spark new innovations in their teaching or research. With few opportunities to teach comics outside of the Anglophone tradition it is not surprising that people are gravitating towards, not necessarily the familiar, but the potentially teachable.
> 
> So research is our best bet to break out of this bind, and as Brittany suggests, it will often need to be collaborative ? scholars in Anglophone traditions working with those with language and cultural expertise in other literary traditions. But such collaborative research is hard to arrange, especially across institutions. One thought would be to use this list as a way of reach out for potential collaborations around specific topics and/or periods. We may not be able to ever have the comparative lit version of comics studies in the classroom which we would all love to have seen, but we can foster a version of it in scholarship that might open up connections and conversations our curricular borderlines often shut down.
> 
> Glad to be having this conversation!
> 
> J
> 
> On Jul 31, 2019, at 4:50 PM, Charles Hatfield via ComicsStudiesSociety <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
> 
> "These kinds of panels are almost always among the most lightly attended, probably because folks aren't reading and teaching the comics that are being discussed."
> 
> YES. John Lent made very nearly the same observation at PCA in the late nineties, and this was part of what prompted IJOCA!
> 
> CH
> 
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 1:45 PM Tullis, Brittany via ComicsStudiesSociety <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
> As someone who studies and writes about Latin/x American comics, I share these concerns and would also like to see the field embrace the study of comics from other countries/traditions/languages more fully. As Charles notes, this is something that conference organizers can work towards (ICAF, I would note, has had the study of international comics at the core of what we do since 1995 - if you're interested in these issues and haven't ever been to or presented at the conference, I'd encourage you to submit a proposal the next time we send out a call). CSS, as Charles notes, also included a number of panels at Ryerson that worked towards this goal of decolonizing the field.
> 
> In order for this kind of inclusion to be meaningful, however, there must be a commitment on the part of those of you who study anglophone or francophone or manga comics to engage with the scholars and scholarship that do this. These kinds of panels are almost always among the most lightly attended, probably because folks aren't reading and teaching the comics that are being discussed.
> 
> Perhaps what the field needs is for people to start reading and teaching more comics beyond the categories that you mention, Phil. Collaborating with (or even simply asking questions of) scholars who speak other languages and reading and citing English-language scholarship about comics in other languages are two great ways to begin, and I appreciate you encouraging our intellectual community to do so.
> 
> For my part, if anyone has any interest in any Spanish-language comics that have been translated into English - or US Latinx titles originally published in English - either for your own reading or for teaching purposes, I'd be happy to start working on a list to share with our members.
> 
> Best,
> Brittany
> 
> 
> Brittany Tullis, PhD
> Associate Professor and Chair
> Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
> St. Ambrose University
> Academic Director, International Comic Arts Forum
> http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org<http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/>
> 2nd Vice President, Comics Studies Society
> http://comicssociety.org<http://comicssociety.org/>
> Fulbright Program Advisor/Scholar Liaison
> https://us.fulbrightonline.org<https://us.fulbrightonline.org/>
> Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Advisor
> https://www.iie.org/programs/gilman-scholarship-program
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 12:03 PM Charles Hatfield via ComicsStudiesSociety <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
> Dear Phil,
> 
> Thank you for raising this issue, following up on the urgent questions posed by Nina Mickwitz's excellent presentation last Saturday. I especially appreciate the concreteness and pragmatism of your recommendations (Nina had asked, in effect, What can we actually do?). As it happens, I have begun raising this issue with CSS officers in the hopes that the Society will take concrete steps toward decolonial and more fully inclusive programming as a regular practice. There will surely be practical hurdles to the implementation of such changes, but together we as a society can work to overleap those obstacles.
> 
> COMICS/POLITICS provided a number of good examples of what decolonial conference programming can look like: e.g., the Indigenous Comics panel last Thursday; the roundtable on feminist comics of the Baltic Sea region on Saturday. I hope every year's CSS conference will include such programming, allied where possible to journal symposia or other publication projects. Further, I hope that Phil's wise suggestions can be encouraged and implemented through such programming.
> 
> CH
> 
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 8:12 AM Gardner, Jared via ComicsStudiesSociety <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
> For reasons I am still trying to figure out, Phil?s message has been getting bounced by the listserv?s ghost in the machine. While I attempt to expel the gremlins, I wanted to pass the message on to the list for discussion:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: Philip Smith <philipsmithgraduate at googlemail.com<mailto:philipsmithgraduate at googlemail.com>>
> Subject: Decolonising Comics Studies
> Date: July 29, 2019 at 11:23:16 AM EDT
> To: <comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>>
> 
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> Thank you all for a wonderful conference. I had a fantastic time and came home full of ideas for my teaching and research.
> 
> One presentation which gave me a lot of food for thought was Dr. Mickwitz?s call to decolonise Comics Studies by looking to works beyond anglophone comics, francophone comics, and manga. There have, of course, been studies which address comics from beyond these areas (indeed, John Lent has built a career out of mapping, and facilitating the mapping of, the world of comics), but, as Dr. Mickwitz argues, comics in English, French, and Japanese tend to occupy most of our attention. There was some discussion after the talk but, as always, the conversation could have continued. I share below some of the ideas which have been percolating for me:
> 
> - Learning a second language is rewarding but may be too large a task for many of us. We can, however, find works which have been translated, hire translators, or study works in English, French, or Japanese from beyond North America,  Europe and Japan - Singapore and many countries in the Caribbean and Africa, for example, have English and English dialects as official languages.
> - We can collaborate with scholars who speak other languages.
> - When preparing CFPs for conferences, special issues, and books we can ask for papers on works which are not anglophone comics, francophone comics, or manga and prioritise submissions which meet that criteria.
> - We can read and cite English-language works by scholars who study comics in other languages.
> - English-language Comics Studies journals could offer authors the option to publish translated versions of their papers on the journal website in addition to versions in English.
> - Academic presses could publish comics and academic works about comics in translation.
> 
> I believe that the process of decolonising Comics Studies should be done with care and respect, ensuring that we approach these works ready to learn and aware of the gaps in our own knowledge. We should prioritise collaborating with and listening to colleagues and creators from overseas.
> 
> I would be interested to hear from colleagues (and in particular those who study works in languages other than English, French, and Japanese) other ideas as to how we can expand the range of works which we, as a body of scholars, give our critical attention.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Phil
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list
> ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu>
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> _______________________________________________
> ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list
> ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu>
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> _______________________________________________
> ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list
> ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu>
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> _______________________________________________
> ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list
> ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu<mailto:ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu>
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> 
> 
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: <https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/private/comicsstudiessociety/attachments/20190731/0cc5a12a/attachment.html>
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Subject: Digest Footer
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ComicsStudiesSociety mailing list
> ComicsStudiesSociety at lists.osu.edu
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/comicsstudiessociety
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of ComicsStudiesSociety Digest, Vol 2, Issue 11
> ***************************************************