Border Crossings: Seeing/Reading Comics and Graphic Narratives through a Digital Lens
Submission Type
Paper
Start Date/Time (EDT)
21-7-2024 2:15 PM
End Date/Time (EDT)
21-7-2024 3:15 PM
Location
Narrative & Worlds
Abstract
Border Crossings: Seeing/Reading Comics and Graphic Narratives through a Digital Lens
This paper seeks to explore how digital technologies and platforms have transformed traditional approaches to the medium/ genre of comics, graphic narratives and/or graphic novels. From the process whereby artists conceptualize and create these narratives to how readers receive and interpret them, a lot has changed with the emergence of digital technologies and platforms. This paper will also reflect on instances of digital platforms and networks enabling co-created works by comic/ graphic artists, sometimes even in collaboration with their readers, imbuing Roland Barthes’ conception of a “writerly” text with a new and literal meaning. It will also deliberate on how digital tools and technologies are rapidly transforming ways of seeing/ reading as well as research/scholarly engagement with this multimodal form. Further, it seeks to delineate the broad contours of empirical comic studies, an emerging field that adopts an interdisciplinary approach to comics, drawing upon various approaches such as the digital humanities, linguistics and cognitive psychology. Touching upon crucial aspects such as digitization, annotation and automatic recognition, this paper will discuss how the rise of the digital humanities has impacted and enriched the field of comic/ graphic novel studies. Finally, while the digital turn has been beneficial in attempts to bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences, it has also spawned new challenges, upon which the paper seeks to offer a brief reflection.
Keywords: graphic narratives, comics, annotation, digital humanities, empirical comics research, collaboration, writerly text
Recommended Citation
Varkey, Elizabeth Ms., "Border Crossings: Seeing/Reading Comics and Graphic Narratives through a Digital Lens" (2024). ELO (un)linked 2024. 11.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/narrativeandworlds/schedule/11
Border Crossings: Seeing/Reading Comics and Graphic Narratives through a Digital Lens
Narrative & Worlds
Border Crossings: Seeing/Reading Comics and Graphic Narratives through a Digital Lens
This paper seeks to explore how digital technologies and platforms have transformed traditional approaches to the medium/ genre of comics, graphic narratives and/or graphic novels. From the process whereby artists conceptualize and create these narratives to how readers receive and interpret them, a lot has changed with the emergence of digital technologies and platforms. This paper will also reflect on instances of digital platforms and networks enabling co-created works by comic/ graphic artists, sometimes even in collaboration with their readers, imbuing Roland Barthes’ conception of a “writerly” text with a new and literal meaning. It will also deliberate on how digital tools and technologies are rapidly transforming ways of seeing/ reading as well as research/scholarly engagement with this multimodal form. Further, it seeks to delineate the broad contours of empirical comic studies, an emerging field that adopts an interdisciplinary approach to comics, drawing upon various approaches such as the digital humanities, linguistics and cognitive psychology. Touching upon crucial aspects such as digitization, annotation and automatic recognition, this paper will discuss how the rise of the digital humanities has impacted and enriched the field of comic/ graphic novel studies. Finally, while the digital turn has been beneficial in attempts to bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences, it has also spawned new challenges, upon which the paper seeks to offer a brief reflection.
Keywords: graphic narratives, comics, annotation, digital humanities, empirical comics research, collaboration, writerly text
Bio
Ms. Elizabeth Varkey is an Assistant Professor at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus where she teaches the MA in English with Digital Humanities programme. She holds an MPhil from the University of Delhi and is currently pursuing her doctoral studies from Savitribai Phule Pune University. Her research is focused on the “Representation of Refugees in Graphic Narratives”. Earlier she had interned with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi where she initiated a comic book project for Rohingya refugee children. She has spent the last ten years studying, researching and teaching graphic novels and has been instrumental in framing syllabi for various institutions that include graphic narratives. An avid researcher, she has presented at national and international conferences, and is a 2023-25 HASTAC scholar.