scholarly journals Composing the Handmaid: From Graphic Novel to Protest Icon

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Commins
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Jan Baetens ◽  
Hugo Frey
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Abu Yazid Abu Bakar ◽  
Dayang Nurfaezah Abang Ahmad ◽  
Melor Md Yunus

Research has shown that using graphic novels in the classroom is one of useful approaches to promote the understanding of learners especially for lengthy and difficult literature texts. This study reports the extent of graphic novel in facilitating students’ understanding of literature and the students’ perceptions towards using graphic novel in learning literature (L2) as compared to other genre of texts. This is a mixed method study which employs quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain data. The findings indicate that most students found that graphic novel helped them to enrich their vocabularies and understand the text better. The findings also reveal that students were attracted to the illustrations in the literature text in which this helps to boost their motivation to learn literature in the classroom. The findings provide useful insights for English as Second Language (ESL) teachers in incorporating and expanding the literature learning through graphic novels in the future. The findings also imply the need of ESL teachers to use graphic novels effectively in facilitating their teaching and learning of literature in L2 classrooms particularly to suit the 21<sup>st</sup> century teaching and learning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER VIALS

American studies has developed excellent critiques of post-1945 imperial modes that are grounded in human rights and Enlightenment liberalism. But to fully gauge US violence in the twenty-first century, we also need to more closely consider antiliberal cultural logics. This essay traces an emergent mode of white nationalist militarism that it calls Identitarian war. It consists, on the one hand, of a formal ideology informed by Identitarian ethno-pluralism and Carl Schmitt, and, on the other, an openly violent white male “structure of feeling” embodied by the film and graphic novel 300, a key source text for the transatlantic far right.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kateřina Valentová

The figure of the superhero has always been regarded as an iconic representative of American society. Since the birth of the first superhero, it has been shaped by the most important historical, political, and social events, which were echoed in different comic issues. In principle, in the superhero genre, there has never been a place for aging superheroes, for they stand as a symbol of power and protection for the nation. Indeed, their mythical portrayal of young and strong broad-chested men with superpowers cannot be shattered showing them fragile or disabled. The aim of this article is to delve into the complex paradigm of the passage of time in comics and to analyze one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman, in terms of his archetypical representation across time. From the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology, the different issues of Action Comics will be examined, as well as an alternative graphic novel Kingdom Come (2008) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, where Superman appears as an aged man. Although it breaks the standards of the genre, in the end it does not succeed to challenge the many stereotypes embedded in society in regard to aging, associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional decline. Furthermore, this article will show how a symbolic use of the monomythical representation of a superhero may penetrate into other cultural expressions to instill a more positive and realistic portrayal of aging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 35S-43S
Author(s):  
Sarah Febres-Cordero ◽  
Athena D. F. Sherman ◽  
Joseph Karg ◽  
Ursula Kelly ◽  
Lisa M. Thompson ◽  
...  

The opioid epidemic was declared a national public health emergency in 2017. In Georgia, standing orders for the opioid antagonist, naloxone, have been implemented to reduce mortality from opioid overdoses. Service industry workers in the Atlanta, Georgia, inner-city community of Little Five Points (L5P) have access to naloxone, potentially expanding overdose rescue efforts in the community setting. To explore the issues facing L5P, our research brings together qualitative descriptive inquiry, ethnography, community-based research, a community advisory board, and a local artist to maximize community dissemination of research findings through a graphic novel that describes encountering an opioid overdose. This format was chosen due to the ethical responsibility to disseminate in participants’ language and for its potential to empower and educate readers. This article describes the process of working on this study with the community and a local artist to create sample pages that will be tested for clarity of the message in a later phase. Working with an artist has revealed that while dissemination and implementation for collaboration begin before findings are ready, cross-collaboration with the artist requires early engagement, substantial funding, artist education in appropriate content, and member checking to establish community acceptability altering illustrations that reinforce negative stereotypes. By sharing the experiences of actions taken during an opioid overdose in L5P through a graphic novel, we can validate service industry workers’ experiences, acknowledge their efforts to contribute to harm reduction, and provide much-needed closure to those who encounter opioid overdoses in the community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 301-313
Author(s):  
Jennifer Boum Make

Following the increase in migratory flows since 2015, in the Euro-Mediterranean region, bandes dessinées are mobilized to stir up compassion and prompt engagement with marginalized biographies. It begins with the premise that aesthetic approaches of bandes dessinées reveal a testing zone to juxtapose modalities of representation and expression of refugees and ways to interact with otherness. To interrogate the relationship between aesthetic devices and the formation of solidarity, this article considers the first volume of Fabien Toulmé’s trilogy, L’Odyssée d’Hakim: De la Syrie à la Turquie (2018). How does Toulmé’s use of aesthetic devices make space for the other, in acts of dialogue and exchange? What are the ethical implications for the exercise of bearing witness to migrant and refugee narratives, especially in the transcription and translation in words and drawing of their biographies? This article argues that visual narratives can provide for the creation of a hospitable testimonial space for migrants and refugees’ voices. The article outlines the aesthetic methodology deployed in graphic storytelling, reflects on what it means for the perception of refugees, and questions the use and ethical appeal of visual narratives as a form to curate hospitality.


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