RMeS Workshop: Beyond the 2 Solitudes in the Canadian “Comics World/s”: Ecocriticism & Indigenous Comics

When: 6 February 2025, 13.00-16.30
Where: University of Amsterdam, BG 1 – room 0.13
For: First and second year RMa students in Media Studies, who are a member of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool)
ECTS: 1EC
Organisers: Rik Spanjers (University of Amsterdam) & Erin La Cour (VU University)
Registration: VIA THIS LINK

Keynote speaker: Chris Reyns-Chikuma (University of Alberta, Canada)

If the key Canadian concept of the “2 solitudes” may be outdated in literature today, it’s still useful in the world of comics. Although there are more bridges between the English and French cultural traditions, and also with others now recognized both within Canada (aboriginal) and abroad (Japan), these have long remained distinct from one another. The reasons for this siloed development were linguistic, but also cultural, such as the fact that English-language comics drew their inspiration mainly from Anglo-Saxon productions, and French-language comics from Franco-Belgian comics, in their mode of creation (aesthetics), production (format) and distribution (book and bookstore laws).

Native comics, for their part, gained a certain autonomy, existing somewhat to the side of the other two traditions. Finally, these three solitudes have also contributed to the creation of a fourth one, that of the manga world which exists largely for itself (festivals, specialized bookshops).

In this seminar, after an overview of the history of Canadian comics and how contemporary comics are produced, distributed and received in Canada, we will concentrate more specifically on comics that focus on Indigenous topics and ecological issues to investigate how the medium is used to address and advocate for increased visibility of indigenous culture and the natural world. The often-reductive conflation of the indigenous into the natural here serves as a way in which indigenous creators grab attention, but also as a cultural construction to be interrogated.

Assignment:

Student will read 3 articles in preparation and write a short response paper of 1500 words.

Articles to read, forthcoming:

• Duke, W.H., From Savagery to Nobility: the 2 sides of Native American Stereotyping, qualitative analysis of Native American Stereotypes in Dutch Comics and Youth Lit., 202
• “Water Spirits” in anthology Moonshot, vol. 2, 2017, Avani/Inhabit Education Books Inc., pp. 95-1 3 [=8 pages];
• “Like a Razor Slash” by Richard Van Camp et al., in an anthology called This Place, 2019, published by Highwater Press, pp. 166-190. [= 24 p.];
• “Future World” in anthology Moonshot, vol. 3, 2019, Avani/Inhabit Education Books Inc., pp. 8-16 [=8 p.];
• Carpe Fin, by Michael Yahgulanaas, 2019 [= 100 p.].

Schedule:

13:00-14:00 Introductory lecture by Chris Reyns-Chikuma

14:00-14:30 Break

14:30-16:30 Workshop on comics ecocriticism and Indigenous comics.