Fractured Images, Broken Words at Lancaster University

By John Freeman on November 16, 2009

Comics writer and former 2000AD editor Andy Diggle will be one of two keynote speakers at an academic conference that will include discussions on the comic form at Lancaster University next year.

Together with Professor Terry Eagleton of Lancaster University, he’ll be discussing comics at Fractured Images, Broken Words, a postgraduate conference at the University on 12th June 2010 which will also feature art installation by Christine Dawson.

Visual and multi-modal texts are an integral element of both popular and literary culture, contemporary and past and the conference is inviting papers which engage with the notion of text and image, through, for example critical examination of graphic novels, television, film, illustrated texts or adaptations.

Papers with an interdisciplinary approach are being actively welcomed, allowing for a collision of meaning and interpretations of both text and image. The organisers are particularly interested in – but not limiting the remit to – topics which focus on the fusion of word and image, and perhaps on the gaps which can be perceived between, and within, visual and textual representation. Where do textual spaces exist? Where do word and image meet? Where do they separate? Where does meaning fuse? Where does it disintegrate?

“As the conference title suggests, we’re also interested in the duplicitous and unstable nature of texts and images,” say the organisers, “and would also like to explore issues such as: How words and / or images be misappropriated, misused or misdirected to create alternative and divergent meanings; The fragility of meaning created by words and / or images; Problems of reading and interpretation.”

It’s hoped the conference will provide a stimulating environment for postgraduate students and other researchers to present work and to share and discuss ideas stemming from the examination of texts employing varied representational modes, adaptations and interactions between text and image.

“We hope to encourage speakers from multiple disciplines, working across historical, cultural and literary periods, and with a wide range of texts.

Suggested topics, themes and disciplinary approaches include Film, Cultural and Literary Studies, Language, Propaganda Texts, Journalism / Photo Journalism, Graphic Novels and Picture Books, Children and Young Adult Literature, Television, Identity, Ownership of Truth, Authenticity, Biographical Texts, Gender, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Translation, Gaps and Silences and Absences – or any other topic which the conference title inspires.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words for papers not exceeding 20 minutes should be submitted by 15th February 2010, to the organisers at: conference@lancasterluminary.com. Please include the title of your paper, your name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation, and a brief summary of your research interests.

• For more info and conference fees visit www.lancasterluminary.com/contents/conference.htm

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.