Graphic Embodiments

Graphic narratives’ singular capacity to represent human embodiment

Comics and other graphic narratives powerfully represent embodied experiences that are difficult to express in language. A group of authors from various countries and disciplines explore the unique capacity of graphic narratives to represent human embodiment as well as the relation of human bodies to the worlds they inhabit. Using works from illustrated scientific texts to contemporary comics across national traditions, we discover how the graphic narrative can shed new light on everyday experiences. Essays examine topics that are easily recognized as anchored in the body as well as experiences like migration and concepts like environmental degradation and compassion that emanate from or impact on our embodied states.

Graphic Embodiments is of interest to scholars and students across various interdisciplinary fields including comics studies, gender and sexuality studies, visual and cultural studies, disability studies and health and medical humanities.

Contributors: Frederick Luis Aldama (Ohio State University), Jodi Cressman (Dominican University), Lisa DeTora (Hofstra University), KJ Dykstra (University of Manitoba), Antonio J. Ferraro (Ohio State University), Carl Fisher (California State University at Long Beach), Barbara Grüning (University of Milan Bicocca), Jordana Greenblat (York University), Alison Halsall (York University), Michael J. Klein (James Madison University), Jeannie Ludlow (Eastern Illinois University), Lauren Rizzuto (Tufts University), Evelyn Rogers (Moorpark College), Shreya Sengai (Northeastern University)

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Acknowledgments

Introduction Jodi Cressman and Lisa DeTora
PART 1. MAKING SENSE OF EMBODIMENT
The Embodied Witness of Graphic Pathology Jodi Cressman
Embodying the Mind: Social Metacognition in Graphic Medical Narratives Carl Fisher
Embodiments of Virtue: Depiction of Caste in Popular Indian Comics and Graphic Novels Shreya Sangai
Graphic Experiences of Immigration, Migration, and Diaspora: Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and Matt Huynh’s Interactive Graphic Adaptation of Nam Le’s “The Boat” Alison Halsall
Body Talk: A Cross-Disciplinary Course on Embodiment and Graphic Memoir Michael J. Klein
PART 2. EMPIRICAL PROBLEMATICS
Women’s Gazes and Non-Newtonian Embodiment in Scientific Graphic Biography Lisa DeTora
Sexology and/as Pornography: Considering the Sexologist’s Desiring Gaze through Forberg and Avril’s De Figuris Veneris KJ Dykstra
Spatializing Women’s Bodies in Italian Comics: A Gender-Sociological Perspective Barbara Grüning
Mother Nature, “She’s a Bitch”: Maternity and Ecofeminism in This One Summer Lauren Rizzuto
PART 3. EMBODIED CONDITIONS
“A Thin Line Between the Inside and the Outside”: HIV and Graphic Life Writing Jordana Greenblatt
The Price of an Ending: Reading Graphic Embodiment in Cancer Vixen Antonio J. Ferraro
Voiceless Bodies: Drawing Autism and Depression in Bef’s Maria Speaks Radmila Lale Stefkova
Full Bleed: The Graphic Period at the End of the Menstrual Narrative Jeannie Ludlow
Afterword Frederick Luis Aldama
Works Cited Contributors Index

Lisa DeTora

Lisa DeTora is associate professor of Writing Studies and Rhetoric and director of STEM Writing at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.

Jodi Cressman

Jodi Cressman is professor of English at Dominican University in River Forest, IL.