Ian Hage & Coroline Ayaka
Representing
Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels
Routledge (Series:Routledge
Research in Cultural and Media Studies), New
York, 2015, 270 pp.
ISBN: 978113802515-8
Multiculturalism,
and its representation, has long presented challenges for the medium of comics.
This book presents a wide ranging survey of the ways in which comics have dealt
with the diversity of creators and characters and the (lack of) visibility for
characters who don’t conform to particular cultural stereotypes. Contributors
engage with ethnicity and other cultural forms from Israel,
Romania, North America, South Africa, Germany,
Spain, U.S. Latino and Canada and
consider the ways in which comics are able to represent multiculturalism
through a focus on the formal elements of the medium. Discussion themes include
education, countercultures, monstrosity, the quotidian, the notion of the
«other», anthropomorphism, and colonialism. Taking a truly international
perspective, the book brings into dialogue a broad range of comics traditions.
Contents
Introduction
(Carolene Ayaka & Ian Hague)
Part I: Histories
and Contexts
1. Corey K.
Creekmur:Multiculturalism Meets the Counterculture: Racial Difference in Underground
Comix
2. Ana Merino:The Impact of the
Latino Identities on the Alternative Landscape of Comics: Thirty Years of Love
and Rockets
3. Andy Mason:The Presidential
Penis: A South African satirical scandal
Part II: Depicting
Difference
4. Simon Grennan:Empowerment
requires power: absence, equilibrium and the capacity to influence in comics
representations of cultural difference
5. Mel Gibson:‘We don’t need no
steenkin’ badgers!’ Talbot’s Grandville, anthropomorphism and
multiculturalism
6. Mihaela Precup:The Image of the
Foreigner in Historical Romanian Comics under Ceauşescu’s Dictatorship
Part III:
Monstrosity and Otherness
7. Sarah D. Harris: The Monster
Within and Without: Spanish Comics, Monstrosity, Religion, and Alterity
8. Ian Horton:Colonialist Heroes
and Monstrous Others: Stereotype and Narrative Form in British Adventure Comic
Books
9. Jacob Birken:Set Pieces. Is
eclectic imagery in Manga “Othering” or practised Polyculturalism?
Part IV:
Challenging Assumptions
10. Maria-Sabina
Draga Alexandru:Narrative Exploration against Mentality Issues:
Indirect Education for Multiculturalism in Tintin
11. Lily Glasner:Embracing Childish
Perspective: Rutu Modan’s A Royal Banquet With the Queen
Part V: Case
Studies
12. Brenna Clarke
Gray & Peter Wilkins:An Innocent at Home: Scott Pilgrim and
its Canadian Multicultural Context
13. Dana
Mihăilescu:The Lower East Side
as a Site of Jewish American Women’s Changing Images in Leela Corman’s Unterzakhn
14. Emma Oki:Representations of
Japanese Americans in Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings and Scenes from
an Impending Marriage
15. Alex Link:Tulips and Roses in
the Global Garden: Contesting Cultural Identity in Persepolis and
Tekkonkinkreet
Carolene Ayakahas a doctorate in
social policy from the University
of Chichester. She did
her MA in Gender studies and diversity at the University of Bradford.
Her main area of interest is identity; how it is theorised and presented as
well as its negotiations and diverseness (thus far having mainly focused on
African female identity). Her interest in comics stems from her enjoyment of
exploring how they are used to represent and translate people’s everyday lives
and imagined lives.
Ian Hagueis the director of
Comics Forum (http://comicsforum.org), an academic organization that promotes
the study of comics and related forms. He is the author of Comics and the
Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels (Routledge
2014) as well as various articles and reviews, and he holds a PhD from the University of Chichester. He can be found online at
www.ianhague.com and on Twitter@drianhague
