ABSTRACT
Comics and human mobility have a long history of connections. This volume explores these entanglements with a focus on both how comics represent migration and what applied uses comics have in relation to migration. The volume examines both individual works of comic art and examples of practical applications of comics from across the world.
Comics are well-suited to create understanding, highlight truthful information, and engender empathy in their audiences, but are also an art form that is preconditioned or even limited by its representational and practical conventions. Through analyses of various practices and representations, this book questions the uncritical belief in the capacity of comics, assesses their potential to represent stories of exile and immigration with compassion, and discusses how xenophobia and nationalism are both reinforced and questioned in comics. The book includes essays by both researchers and practitioners such as activists and journalists whose work has combined a focus on comics and migration. It predominantly scrutinises comics and activities from more peripheral areas such as the Nordic region, the German-language countries, Latin America, and southern Asia to analyse the treatment and visual representation of migration in these regions.
This topical and engaging volume in the Global Perspectives in Comics Studies series will be of interest to researchers and students of comics studies, literary studies, visual art studies, cultural studies, migration, and sociology. It will also be useful reading for a wider academic audience interested in discourses around global migration and comics traditions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|93 pages
Migration and the use of comics
chapter 2|17 pages
The long road to Almanya
chapter 3|16 pages
Feminist comics activism
chapter 5|18 pages
From representations of suffering migrants to appreciation of the Mexican American legacy in the United States
part II|61 pages
Configurations of nationalism and migration
chapter 7|14 pages
V for pissed-offedness
chapter 8|14 pages
On the “good” side
part III|72 pages
Conventions and revisions of migration narratives