Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to draw together comics and multiculturalism, and to consider these and other shared questions. Asserting that "the basic issue that concerns the discourse on multiculturalism is the power imbalance that exists between the cultural standard that defines the majority and the cultural traits that characterize minority groups". Glasner goes on to note that in recent years "discourse of this kind has expanded to include a critical examination of deprived groups in society, who may or may not be, technically speaking, minorities". Coexistence, interaction, integration, intersectionality, negotiation, power. Each of these terms could be used to formulate substantial questions about multiculturalism, or about comics and graphic novels. Treatments of related subjects such as (post)colonialism as both a historical situation and a means for reading comics and graphic novels have also begun to appear in recent years.