Graphic Indigeneity
Comics in the Americas and Australasia
How comics in the Americas and Oceania have misconstrued, transformed, and reconstructed Indigenous stories
Description
Honorable Mention Recipient for the Comics Studies Society Prize for Edited Book Collection
Contributions by Joshua T. Anderson, Chad A. Barbour, Susan Bernardin, Mike Borkent, Jeremy M. Carnes, Philip Cass, Jordan Clapper, James J. Donahue, Dennin Ellis, Jessica Fontaine, Jonathan Ford, Lee Francis IV, Enrique García, Javier García Liendo, Brenna Clarke Gray, Brian Montes, Arij Ouweneel, Kevin Patrick, Candida Rifkind, Jessica Rutherford, and Jorge Santos
Cultural works by and about Indigenous identities, histories, and experiences circulate far and wide. However, not all films, animation, television shows, and comic books lead to a nuanced understanding of Indigenous realities.
Acclaimed comics scholar Frederick Luis Aldama shines light on how mainstream comics have clumsily distilled and reconstructed Indigenous identities and experiences. He and contributors emphasize how Indigenous comic artists are themselves clearing new visual-verbal narrative spaces for articulating more complex histories, cultures, experiences, and narratives of self.
To that end, Aldama brings together scholarship that explores both the representation and misrepresentation of Indigenous subjects and experiences as well as research that analyzes and highlights the extraordinary work of Indigenous comic artists. Among others, the book examines Daniel Parada’s Zotz, Puerto Rican comics Turey el Taíno and La Borinqueña, and Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection.
This volume’s wide-armed embrace of comics by and about Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australasia is a first step to understanding how the histories of colonial and imperial domination connect the violent wounds that still haunt across continents. Aldama and contributors resound this message: Indigeneity in comics is an important, powerful force within our visual-verbal narrative arts writ large.
Reviews
"A stunning overview of indigeneity as a transnational and borderless graphic culture, transcending our very own histories to celebrate undermined complexities, cultural resistance, and the resiliency of our peoples. From Incan and Taino to Māori, Australian, and Canadian Indigenous histories and experiences, Aldama brings together a dazzling array of scholarly voices that shout loud for indigeneity empowerment!"
- Federico Cuatlacuatl, award-winning Indigenous multimedia artist and founder and director of Rasquache Artist Residency in Puebla Mexico
"An extraordinary exploration of Indigenous comics and graphic novels, this collection of essays unites writers, artists, and Native storytellers to grapple with Indigenous and aboriginal decolonization and futurity from mainstreamed Indigenous representation to decolonial imaginaries. This expansive volume sets out to denaturalize settler colonialism through imaginative analysis of graphic indigeneity. "
- John Jota Leaños, artist and professor of film and digital media at University of California, Santa Cruz
"The book’s most interesting contribution is its showcase of works by contemporary Indigenous creators, showing its respect for Indigenous cultures and recognition of their constant evolution and work toward resurgence."
- Jean Sébastien, American Review of Canadian Studies
"Plath scholar Carl Rollyson has distilled Plath's diaries, journals, letters, stories, prose as well as information from six biographies of Plath (1932-63), to create a day-by-day-and sometimes hour-by-hour-chronicle of her activities. . . . The volume is likely to serve best as a sourcebook for researchers. who will be aided by the extremely detailed index."
- L. Simon, CHOICE