A multidisciplinary study of feminist comic art

A multidisciplinary study of feminist comic art

Financiers

The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies

Project type

Research

The focus of this project is feminist comic art and graphic novels from Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Russia. The multidisciplinary team of researchers is united by a view of comics as political action and social commentary, looking specifically at the role of comic art in operationalizing a feminist movement.

The project members will explicate how format, language, and materiality serve as vehicles for depicting female perspectives, sharing private trauma, addressing taboo subjects, exploring sexuality, or challenging gender roles. Furthermore, the team will investigate how feminist critique is communicated and made accessible -and how violent, abusive, discriminatory, or embarrassing experiences are rendered all the more disarming -when depicted in the medium of comic art. With the inclusion of works by creators from Sweden and its neighboring countries of Germany and Finland, as well as Russia, a transnational perspective on the feminist comics landscape of the Baltic Sea region is adopted. The transnational approach also acknowledges recurring strategies of visualizing and narrating female experiences, and similarities in aesthetics, materiality, and thematic content.

The comic art in focus encompasses themes of gender, sexuality, power, vulnerability, assault, abuse, taboo, and trauma, often expressed with humorous undertones of nostalgia, anxiety, or social criticism. The investigation of feminist comic art and graphic narrative will be conducted by a seven-member team representing the Baltic Sea region and the disciplines of linguistics, literary studies, art history, and history with the aim of collaboratively exploring visual and verbal strategies in comics as a medium of feminist critique.

Michael Frangos  - Projektforskare

Anna Nordenstam, Göteborgs universitet

Margareta Wallin Wictorin, Karlstads universitet

Elizabeth Nijdam, University of Michigan

Leena Romu, University of Tampere

José Alaniz, University of Washington

Research area / geographic area

Culture and Education English Baltic

Project time

2017 — 2020

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Page updated

28-05-2019