CFP:
Monstrous Women in Comics—an Interdisciplinary Conference on Women in Comics
and Graphic Novels
May 25–27 2017, University of North Texas, Denton, TX
Keynote: Dr. Carol Tilley, Associate Professor, Graduate
School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
The relationship between women and the comics industry is
contested perhaps now more than ever before. Fresh conflicts in mainstream
presses reveal lingering aversions to women creators, and fan-reactions to
reboots demonstrate similar dis-ease with “non-canonical” re-imaginings of
female characters. Far from being novel, these tensions are rooted in the very
history of western comics. From the Golden Age, women were erased or
marginalized in comics through, for instance, the use of “gender-neutral” monikers.
Female characters were aesthetically constructed to meet and satisfy the male
gaze and overwhelmingly, their narratives were penned by male authors. Women
readers of comics were historically “pandered to” with romance comics but were
otherwise ignored as a target audience. Even within the medium of graphic
novels, where women’s work has arguably been more visible, women creators are
being erased by industry-standard events like the Angoulême Festival. Here, as
in other areas of popular culture, women are treated in very Aristotelian
ways—at best, they are deemed to be monstrous derivatives of men, and at worst,
they are simply monsters for daring to enter what has been overwhelmingly
characterized as man’s domain. From a feminist perspective, there is ample room
for critique of the ways in which women in comics are made into monsters, but
now we want to ask if that is all there is? Must a theoretical investigation of
monstrous women in comics be limited to surveys of marginalization and erasure?
Building on the work of postmodern scholars like Donna
Haraway, and following from recent iterations of Monster Studies, we seek to
critically engage with, and re-evaluate, monstrous women in comics. For
Haraway, the figure of the monster is one who simultaneously illuminates and
threatens boundaries; the monster is a creature who resides in borderlands and
embodies transgression; she is the imbrication of text, myth, body, nature and
the political—she is neither “self” nor “other.” To be deemed monstrous is to
be situated in the margins, to be placed outside, and yet the monster is one
who always threatens those margins, who promises to leak into and over.
Constructively engaging with the monstrous can ultimately lead us into an
“imagined elsewhere,” the monster can be full of promises. Therefore, we are
seeking interdisciplinary examinations of monstrous women in comics not only in
order to critically question and contest normative boundaries, but also to
begin to imagine how the relationship between women and comics might be
otherwise.
We invite all interested participants to join us in thinking
about monstrous women in comics across genres: papers may engage with
historical studies of women in comics, mainstream comics, graphic novels, indie
comics, religious comics, or web comics. Paper proposals, in the form of
250-word abstracts, may also address—but are not limited to—any of the
following topics:
- The monstrosity of (early) women creators
- Romance comics and “girl comics” as monstrous
- Female characters as monstrous derivatives of male superheroes
- Women characters/creators/readers as monstrous because of their sexuality, corporeality, race, religion, or (dis)ability
- Monstrous female characters as manifestations of patriarchal desires/anxieties/fears
- Monsters who are female
- Female characters who transgress human/inhuman boundaries
- Women readers/fans as monsters
- Women fan/creator collectives as transgressive & monstrous
- Maternity and monstrosity
- Indie & web comics as monstrous
- Monstrous feminism & comics
In order to further emphasize the fruitfulness of
transgressing boundaries and engaging with the monstrous, this conference also
seeks to leak over the boundaries of academia by inviting women comics creators
who would like to submit their work for a temporary gallery exhibition and/or
who would be interested in tabling the event. All interested creators/vendors
should email a short bio and any relevant links to portfolios or previous
works.
Accepted participants will be invited to present their 20-minute
papers, or to exhibit their work, at a two-and-a-half-day interdisciplinary
conference at the University of North Texas in Denton. To submit a paper
proposal, or to express interest in exhibiting/tabling, please send an email to
monstrouswomen@gmail.com
with the following information:
- Name, institutional affiliation, email address
- 250-word abstract (if applicable)
- Short bio & portfolio links (if applicable)
ABSTRACTS
MUST BE SUBMITTED BY OCTOBER 1, 2016, 5PM CST
