Category: graphic novels

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Silence and the Reclamation of Voice in Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez’s “Wake”

Looking through historical documents, specifically British court documents, related to the 1712 slave revolt in New York, Rebecca Hall encounters the names of four women involved in the revolt. However, their testimony doesn’t exist within the record. Instead, it simply reads, in reference to one of the women, “Having nothing to say for herself than what she had previously said . . .” The … Read More Silence and the Reclamation of Voice in Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez’s “Wake”

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“Racially Inflicted Language” and the Archives

In Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison highlights the ways that language obfuscates yet also illuminates he Africanist presence at the heart of American literature. Morrison delivered the lectures that would constitute Playing in the Dark in 1990, and she foresaw possible backlash from her ideas. She chose to risk backlash because the point she sought to make was vitally important. As she puts it, “for both … Read More “Racially Inflicted Language” and the Archives

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Thread in Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman’s “Battle Lines”

Ryan Franklin, one of my colleagues, teaches a Graphic History course every year. For the class, Franklin chooses various graphic novels and memoirs that focus on historical events and individuals to teach students about historiography and research. One of the books he uses is Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman’s Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (2015). When I saw this book … Read More Thread in Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman’s “Battle Lines”

Conversation with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell about “March”

Over the course of this semester in my Multicultural America Literature course, I have had conversations with various authors and scholars such as Kiku Hughes (Displacement), Lila Quintero Weaver (Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White), Eir-Anne Edgar and Michael Dando discussing Maus, Jennifer Morrison discussing Of Love and Dust, and more. We concluded the course by reading John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate … Read More Conversation with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell about “March”

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Fannie Lou Hamer in “March”: Part III

Over the last couple of posts, I’ve looked at the depiction of Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 speech in front of the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention in John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell’s March Trilogy. Today, I want to finish up that discussion by examining what occurred after Hamer’s speech and the ways that Lewis, Aydin, and Powell depict what happened. … Read More Fannie Lou Hamer in “March”: Part III