Comics as a Nexus of Culture: An Interdisciplinary Conference (25-27 May 2007, Germany)

Here's a Call for Papers I just recieved for what promises to be a wide-ranging conference. For more information, contact the conference organizer (details below).

Comics as a Nexus of Culture:
An Interdisciplinary Conference
25-27 May 2007
to be held at Pfalzakademie, Lambrecht, Germany

The comic can be seen as a central node in the network of contemporary culture. Comics have developed several distinctive national "schools" but they also display a strong inherent potential for international reception, which allows them to transcend cultural boundaries easily. In a very unique way, comics mediate between the culture of youths and the culture of adults, as well as between popular culture and high culture. Comics are also intermedial because they manifest themselves at the intersection of text, image, and sequence. They have often been shaped by the influence of various neighbouring media but they have also influenced other media. Comics thus present the unique chance to engage in a truly interdisciplinary discourse which brings together the distinctive approaches of various disciplines. An approach shaped by the distinctive characteristics of comics, on the other hand, has the potential to spark off new insight in the fields of the established disciplines.

For the proposed conference in May 2007, we therefore invite papers which look at the comic as a mediator between cultures and disciplines. European comics are planned to be a special focus of the conference but we are also happy to receive suggestions for papers which find their topic elsewhere. Ideas for panels and conference events in non-traditional formats are highly welcomed.

Areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• different styles in European comics
  intercultural connections between Europe and the rest of the world in comics
  
• the influence of comics on film and TV and vice versa
  
• literary influences on comics and the influence of the comic on literature
  
• the subversive cultural potential of comics
  
• comics in Academia: Comics studies as an academic discipline
  
• the meta-comic
  
• realism/anti-realism and comics

Please abstracts of proposed papers (ca. 200 words) by 15 December 2006 to:

Dr. Mark Berninger
Department of English and Linguistics
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz
berninger@anglistik.uni-mainz.de