Lost on the Margins of Literature: Comics and Graphic Novels

Since the late twentieth century, comics and in particular graphic novels are no longer regarded as a niche artifact, but a mainstream product (cf. McCloud, Understanding Comics 1993). Moreover, there is an increasing interest from academia for this form of narrative. Critics such as Hilary Chute have argued that the particular relationship between word and image seems very apt to "mediate" counter-narratives on history and contemporary topics (consider for instance, in Italy, the BeccoGiallo collection). The present lecture will explore these trends through some case studies that will highlight the challenges and difficulties that scholars face in their analyses. In doing so, the lecture will aim to offer tools and approaches that can guide students in reading and interpreting this fascinating medium.

Inge Lanslots is associate professor of Italian culture at the Research Unit of Translation studies. At Campus Antwerp, she teaches Italian culture and translation. She is currently the Vice Campus Dean of Research.

After obtaining her degree of licenciate  in Romance Philology and her certificate in Italian Studies at the University of Antwerp, she was granted a PhD fellowship by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). In 1998, she obtained her PhD with a dissertation entitled ‘Gli orologi molli’: la narrativa italiana contemporanea e la conoscenza del tempo, a close-reading of the works of contemporary Italian authors who problematize time at both a content and narratological level, Ricoeur’s tales of time.

Inge’s exclusive focus on literature has gradually broadened to other genres or types of narratives, such as comics-graphic novels, (documentary) film, street art. Since 2010, her research focuses mainly on the representation of cultural memory in contemporary narratives, such as antimafia, migration, 1968 and Italy’s Years of Lead, Genova 2001 (Carlo Giuliani).

Along with An Van Hecke, she supervises the ÉXODOCS project, dedicated to the representation of migration from Latin America to the United States in documentaries that turn documentary filmmakers into new storytellers on border crossing. 

Inge is also co-editor-in-chief of the OA journal Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani and editor of the Moving Texts/Testi mobili-series (Peter Lang).

To attend this lecture, please register at this link.  All times stated in Eastern time.