Visualizing Change: Graphic Arts, Comics, Cartoons, and Memes as Visual Tools for Change in the Contemporary Arab World
Guest Editors: Eid Mohamed and Barkuzar Dubbati
This special issue of the Arab Studies Journal focuses on the rise of graphic arts, comics, and memes in the Arab world as a means of expression, representation, and political resistance against ideological hegemony. The aim of this special issue is to explore graphic arts, comics, and memes, and their uses and functions in a changing Arab world.
This special issue focuses on the rise of graphic arts, comics, and memes in the Arab world as a means of expression, representation, and political resistance against ideological hegemony. The aim of this special issue is to explore graphic arts, comics, and memes, and their uses and functions in a changing Arab world. We are interested in scholarly works that examine the intersectionality of the literary and artistic production created before, during, and after the Arab uprisings, and the significance of the development of visual means of production of these works, especially in relation to online communication. The uprisings that began in Tunisia in December 2010 popularized the use of non-traditional and independent media for publishing. It proved that seekers of political change do not need the sponsorship of traditional media. New aspiring artists and authors came to a similar realization as they began to use media, such as the internet and public spaces, to broadcast and showcase their art, literary works, and political statements. We invite papers on visual arts and literature that either combine pictorial and verbal narratives or use images as a form of narration, such as graphic novels, comics, caricatures, and graffiti.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to: graphic arts and literature as tools of resistance; the use of comics, cartoons, and memes to represent socio-political realities in Arab countries; the rise of independent means of production of graphic literature and art; the impact of social media and the Arab uprisings on the rise of graphic literature and art; a comparative analysis of Arab/Arabic graphic narratives and arts before and after the Arab uprisings; issues or challenges in translation of graphic literature from/into Arabic; the Arab-Israeli conflict in graphic arts and literature; historiographic studies of Arabic graphic novels and comics; the representation of gender in Arab graphic art; the commodification of graphic arts; the reception of graphic arts in the Arab world; and the emergence of the Arab webcomic.
Submission of six thousand to eight thousand words should be sent to editor@arabstudiesjornal.org by 1 May 2018. Please format submissions in accordance with ASJ style guide.