This article examines representations of aging female bodies and sexuality in two contemporary Franco-Belgian graphic novels: Le Plongeon (2018) by Séverine Vidal and Victor Pinel and L'Obsolescence programmée de nos sentiments (2021) by Zidrou and Aimée de Jongh. While the scholarship on aging in comics has focused primarily on narratives of illness, decline, or intergenerational care, much less attention has been given to depictions of older women's desire and erotic agency. Our analysis sets these works within the long-standing Franco-Belgian comics tradition, where women over sixty are rarely to be found as central characters. By comparing two protagonists at different stages of later life -one in her sixties, the other in her eighties- we explore how the graphic novel as a multimodal form engages ambivalently with cultural anxieties about aging, sexuality, and visibility. We argue that these works both challenge and reproduce dominant imaginaries of female sexuality and desire in old age, hinging our analysis in theories by Kathleen Woodward, Margaret Gullette, and Lynne Segal with the aim of offering a fertile ground for analyzing the intersections of gender, body, and temporality in contemporary European comics.

Abstract Graphic novels occupy an interesting intersection in libraries where they are both popular to read and popular to challenge or censor. Graphic novels are often the subject of great scrutiny, from their ability to channel and reflect inclusivity and empathy to their capacity to be taken out of context due to their highly visual nature. Interestingly, emerging technology developments such as Generative AI also pose surprising challenges for graphic novels, their creators, and the library communities that these works reside in. In the context of queries and challenges levelled against graphic novels in libraries, this article synthesizes a review of relevant literature and creative autoethnography in the form of reflective writing vignettes to explore the experiences of working in libraries and what these subjective stories reveal about graphic novel collections, their uses, and their perceived value. In doing so, graphic novels are critiqued for library engagement potential, while autoethnography is considered for its ability to elevate and analyze lived experience in research.

Literary interiority—encompassing psyche, memory, and identity—is not a static reflection of character but a dynamic construct shaped by narrative form. This study examines how chronotopes (Bakhtin’s time-space condensations) and intertextual relations (Genette’s hypertextual transformations) co-constitute subjective experience across evolving genres, addressing a gap in narratology where these mechanisms are typically analyzed in isolation. A comparative narratological analysis was conducted on a purposive corpus of texts spanning prose, graphic novels, and film adaptations, using a replicable dual-axis coding matrix (chronotope × intertextuality). Narrative segments were systematically annotated for time-space motifs and textual relations, with high inter-coder reliability ensuring robustness. Three dominant framing constellations emerged—Mythic-Cosmic Fusion, Cyclical-Memorial Reconfiguration, and Fragmented-Empathetic Thresholds—collectively accounting for nearly all observed variance in interiority effects. Specific pairings consistently predicted distinct psychological outcomes: transcendence-in-crisis, resilient renewal, and empathic immersion. Chronotope and intertext do not merely frame inner worlds—they engineer them. The resulting model reveals genre evolution as a process of psychic modulation and provides predictive tools with applications in literary analysis, cognitive studies, and therapeutic narrative design.

Marginalized groups in India have historically endured multidimensional structural oppression and cultural erasure, which choked agency, access and dignity based on ascribed caste, gender and other identities. Mainstream literature perpetuated singular elite narratives ignoring ‘unheard’ subaltern experiences. However, the emergent graphic novel form opens vital counter-hegemonic space through its democratic appeal, evocative visual storytelling and mass resonance. This article examines how graphic narratives lift up Dalit feminist standpoints to surface injustice while redefining discourse on identity, power and social change. These encompass Bhimayana , depicting frontline Dalit activist B. R. Ambedkar’s inspiring biography; Priya’s Mirror , fictionalizing an oppressed woman’s consciousness-raising; and Gardener in the Wasteland , exploring the catalyst for change Jyotiba Phule’s conviction. This study interlinks Dalit literary and feminist standpoint theories underscoring subaltern epistemic insights gained through navigating systemic violence. Comics bust singular narratives by connecting shared struggles against exploitation based on ascribed differences. Thereby graphic novels’ accessibility and impact rescue radical legacies often erased from mainstream discourse towards raising mass consciousness on dignity deficits that persist despite legal equality promises in the world’s largest democracy.

This article analyzes the importance of children's bibliographic collections in school libraries and their contribution to the academic training of primary school students. Based on IFLA/UNESCO frameworks and authors such as Ameijeiras (2009) and Gómez (2002), the school library is conceived as a resource center for reading, information, and learning, integrated into the curriculum and oriented toward equity. A qualitative approach is adopted with interviews and a questionnaire with library science professionals in Heredia, and a documentary review. The findings indicate: (1) a predominance of female staff with university education (mostly bachelor's degrees) and ≥2 years of experience; (2) infrastructure gaps (50% report inadequate spaces); (3) acquisition by purchase/donation and incomplete coverage of collection development policies (63%); (4) collections with reference material and literature, but limited presence of recreational material, key for emergent reading; (5) The adequacy of the resources for the first cycle was rated as "fairly so" by 63%, highlighting the need for updating and greater curricular and age alignment. The selection is guided by MEP lists, curricular relevance, institutional values, and feedback from teachers and students. Reading preferences focus on narrative (short stories, young adult novels, fables), high-appeal subgenres (fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, suspense, graphic novels), and informative science texts; popular franchises boost motivation. Methodologically, reading clubs and recreational mediations (storytelling, puppets) stand out, although gaps in coordination with Spanish and risks of extrinsic motivation persist. It is concluded that strengthening infrastructure, PDC, recreational materials, and early mediation are crucial to improving comprehension, reading habits, and learning outcomes.

ABSTRACT Delhi has been imagined in every possible literary style, yet it continues to inspire new stories. Apart from narratives that glorify the rich heritage of the city, literature centred on Delhi can be broadly classified into three categories: narratives that 1) focus on social and political justice and structural inequalities, 2) historicise the city, and 3) expose the politics and problems of postmodern life. While a large body of scholarship exists on the aforementioned themes, there is a notable lack of studies that focus on the geography and spatiality of the city. Authored by Sarnath Banerjee, Corridor ;(2004) is one of the most acclaimed Indian graphic novels, which is studied at length for its portrayal of contemporary urban life in its absurd and fragmented state. The paper argues that Banerjee highlights the geographical, political, and social centrality of Delhi, emphasising its geographical and symbolic significance in shaping power dynamics and urban identities through the skilful manipulation of architecture and cartographic signifiers. It adopts a geocritical perspective to analyse Corridor; Gaston Bachelard’s Phenomenology of Roundness and conventions of literary cartography are employed to interpret the deployment of architectural and cartographic signifiers, respectively.

Rosenblatt’s reader-response theory, with its emphasis on the reader’s role in co-creating meaning, offers insights for enhancing students’ literary experience. This systematic review examined the implementation of the approach within primary and secondary education, focusing on pedagogical practices, text choices, and benefits of reader-response approach for aesthetic engagement. The analysis of 39 empirical studies (1989-2024) revealed four key practices: literature discussions, free response writing and creative writing, reading modality practices, and teacher read-alouds. These practices all emphasize the role of the aesthetic transaction between text and reader in enhancing the reading experience. The review also identified genres such as realistic fiction, multicultural literature, picture books, graphic novels, Gothic literature, humorous fiction, and historical fiction, that have been used in studies applying Rosenblatt’s theory to enhance aesthetic engagement. These studies explored the potential of such texts to enhance aesthetic engagement, particularly when text choices align with students’ interests and backgrounds. Furthermore, the review found that the reader-response approach promotes several key benefits: fostering personal connections and deeper engagement, enhancing personal and literary understanding, fostering empathy, and promoting identity construction. These findings advocate for a pedagogical shift toward practices that prioritize personal connections, interpretive freedom, and the holistic development of readers.

In recent years, topics that concern race, social injustices, or frame America as a nation that has not always lived up to democratic ideals have been labeled as divisive and unpatriotic. The social studies classroom is where students should examine in equal measure how a nation has fallen short, persevered, and triumphed. In this article, the author discusses how teachers may use historical empathy to examine history accurately and authentically. When engaging in historical empathy, students analyze multiple perspectives, especially those of marginalized groups. They contextualize the past and make affective connections with historical figures in order to understand how values, beliefs, and emotions impact why people made certain decisions and engaged in certain behaviors. The author explores how to develop students’ historical empathy skills utilizing graphic novels. The activities in this article focus on the graphic novel Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana to explore the political and social upheavals during U.S. Reconstruction. Graphic novels aid in the development of historical empathy by allowing for a deeper analysis of historical figures, how issues such as race and social injustice have origins in the past, implications for the present, and impact all people in a nation.

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the role of comics in countering the ‘culture of oblivion’ in post-dictatorial Chile by representing and engaging with the emotional and spatial dimensions/legacies of the Unidad Popular years (1970–1973). Specifically, it provides a close reading of Nicolás Cruz and Quique Palomo's , El Golpe: El Pueblo 1970–1973 (2014), which captures the atmosphere, passions, and emotions and struggles that culminated in the military coup in 1973. Drawing on theories of collective trauma and collective memory and by applying a textual and visual analysis, I argue that this piece of work functions not only as an important historical account, but as a powerful tool for preserving, interpreting, and transmitting the historical and political legacy of the UP-years, reclaiming previously (officially) silenced and/or marginalised memories/voices into focus. This is particularly important in a context that has recently seen the resurgence of political actors/groups aiming to distort factual events, seeking to forget the past, or simply legitimise Chile's horrible dictatorial past.

The aim of the research is to identify the specifics of the visual-verbal language of the graphic novel within the context of the category of polyphony. The article examines the unique subject-image structure of the graphic novel “Lichtung” (2018) by the German artist Antonia Kühn (b. 1979). The work is analyzed in the context of a generation of artists who emerged on the European “9th art” scene in 2010. This generation is defined by a new “visual-verbal” language compared to the graphic novels of the 2000s. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that, for the first time, features of the ballad and the polyphonic novel have been identified within a modern graphic novel at the level of its subject-image structure. As a result of the study, it was established for the first time that through the implementation of three types of communicative strategies of the Romantic ballad within the narrative whole, the combination of lyrical and epic positions of the narrator, and the absence of information about the fictional world that is not mediated through the characters’ consciousness, “Lichtung” constitutes a polyphonic graphic novel, the structural basis of which is formed by an initiation plot.

Many works of science fiction in literature, theater, film, comics, television, and video games envision different futures for Latin America, connected to social and political realities and the particularities of each subregion. However, some creations share common points and questions. This study aims to analyze and compare two graphic novels: Angelus Hostis (2012), by Ecuadorian writer Santiago Páez (story) and Rafael Carrasco (art), and Policía del Karma (2011), by Chilean writer Jorge Baradit (story and graphics) and Martín Cáceres (art). Both works are science fiction within the cyberpunk subgenre and are heavily influenced by police narratives. Angelus Hostis is an intense, dark, and moving story, shaped by myths, religious synchronicity, and technology. In contrast, Policía del Karma is a dark and harrowing tale that exposes the violence of Latin American dictatorships and incorporates elements such as religious syncretism, militarism, and shamanism. The works differ significantly due to the social realities and specific contexts of each subregion: Angelus Hostis is set in Cuenca, Ecuador, while Policía del Karma takes place in Santiago, Chile. Despite these differences in setting, both works share insights about their vision of Latin America’s future and raise questions about human evolution in relation to technology, which could plausibly lead to the loss of humanity itself, perhaps even the erosion of fundamental emotions.

Manga are imaginative graphic novels that often feature adventurous, motivational, and inspirational storylines. Manga genres are broadly categorized by their primary intended audience, as defined by age and gender. The two most popular are Shōnen, targeting male adolescents ages 12 to 17, and Seinen, targeting young male adults ages 18 to 30. These popular genres sometimes present content that depicts risk-taking behavior, such as substance use, which may have adverse effects on young readers. This study documents and compares substance use-related content in Shōnen and Seinen. The study sample consisted of 500 randomly selected chapters from a set of top-selling Shōnen and Seinen series. We used Fisher’s exact test to compare prevalence rates between the two genres. We found that 150 out of the 500 chapters (30%) had at least one depiction of substance use, related dialogue, or paraphernalia, with tobacco-related content comprising the majority of these depictions. Shōnen had more tobacco-related content than Seinen (p < 0.01), though the latter had more depictions of ashtrays (p < 0.01). Our sample presented no content related to vaping or prescription drug misuse. The nature and extent of this substance use-related content are generally consistent with current societal norms in Japan. Future research should examine whether young readers’ exposure to this content changes their beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.

ABSTRACT Graphic anthropology has grown to become a distinctive subfield at the intersection of anthropology of drawing, visual anthropology, and multimodal approaches to social research. We assess this development and identify two emerging styles of graphic anthropological practice. While some anthropologists follow the representational language of comic books and graphic novels—known as sequential art—others evade sequential framing, arranging images and text in a variety of nonsequential combinations. We compare and evaluate the two styles and outline their common analytical aspiration to unsettle static textual representation. Such a representational unsettling, we argue, can be realized productively—not by accentuating the text‐image dichotomy or by treating the emerging styles as mutually exclusive—but through benefiting from the hybrid (pictorial and textual) qualities of graphic anthropology, which shape each other in a coproductive relationship that defies typological boundaries.

ABSTRACT The debates surrounding development-induced displacement critique the significant facet of the Anthropocene, wherein extractive development practices displace indigenous communities and disrupt the ecological systems. This reflects the epoch’s unprecedented human impact in transforming the Earth’s geology and biosphere. The visual-verbal medium of comics, particularly in its graphic novel format, effectively communicates the complex and intricate relationships among the participatory groups of developmental projects. Indian graphic novels, despite their niche readership in urban and academic spheres, frequently explore socially relevant themes. Positioned within the comics medium, they offer a compelling narrative to critique the multilayered hegemonic power relations and disseminate the plight of displaced people. Within this context, the paper argues that comics, through their visual and narrative features – panels, gutter, balloons/carriers, visual weight, sound representations, emanatas, perspective, and metaphor – serve as an appropriate medium to represent development-induced displacement. The study highlights how these aspects effectively communicate the complex socio-political dynamics and lived experiences to facilitate the understanding of readers and to ensure their cognitive and affective engagement with displacement discourse. The study reads Orijit Sen’s The River of Stories (1994) employing the theoretical framework of Scott McCloud and William Eisner pertaining to comic studies and the conceptual insights of Devakumar, VanCleef, Nalin Singh Negi and Sujata Ganguly, and Mishra on development-induced displacement.

The article examines anthropomorphism as an artistic device in contemporary comics and its role as a tool for constructing the image of a story’s protagonist. The study outlines the main functions of anthropomorphic characters in comics, particularly their ability to convey complex social themes through animal figures endowed with human traits. The article analyzes examples from classic and modern European graphic novels, American comic books, and Ukrainian comics, which demonstrate the symbolic, comedic, and emotionally charged potential of anthropomorphism as a means of character creation. The research considers different levels of anthropomorphization, ranging from zoomorphic metaphors (Maus by Art Spiegelman) to fully “humanized” animal characters in classic Disney comics. Special attention is paid to the use of anthropomorphism in the contemporary Ukrainian context, particularly in the comics Koty-zakhysnyky UA (“Cats-Defenders UA”) and publications about the mine-detection dog Patron, where this device serves as a gentle means of representing wartime realities while forming positive and recognizable heroic images. The study demonstrates that anthropomorphism significantly expands the expressive possibilities of comic art, allowing creators to develop more nuanced protagonists, enhance the symbolic and metaphorical layers of the narrative, and build an effective dialogue with readers of different age groups.

Since his literary debut, the Haitian-Quebecois Immortal Dany Laferrière has universalized the experience of exile through the hybridization of genres and the use of transcultural, extraterritorial references that extend his reflection beyond Haiti and Quebec to embrace the whole world. This article examines the impact of intermediality in his graphic novels Vers d’autres rives (2019) and L’Exil vaut le voyage (2020), focusing on the interplay between text and image and highlighting the intertextuality with other works by Laferrière. Drawing on an analysis of visual and textual narration, the article highlights how the writer transcends the boundaries between text and image. The aim is to show how this latest direction taken by Laferrière, in which literature and the visual arts converge, adds a new dimension to his already complex work, deeply rooted in cultural and artistic diversity.

This paper analyses Geonung Park’s Geu yeoreumnarui gieok (Memories of Those Summer Days), published in 2019, and Kim Geumsuk’s Gidarim (The Waiting), published in 2020, two Korean graphic novels that portray the Korean War (1950–1953). The aim of the paper is to show the manner in which meaning is conveyed in comics. Park’s graphic novel focuses on a largely unknown event from the Korean War, which is the Nogeunri massacre (26–29 July 1950), when American soldiers killed hundreds of South Korean civilian refugees, while Kim’s graphic novel focuses more on the memory and the aftermath of the Inter-Korean War, when families were able to reunite, 70 years after the conflict. The first graphic novel can only be found in Korean, whereas Kim’s novel has beentranslated into English, a year after its publication, but the object of analysis is the original, Korean version. This paper discusses the two graphic novels through an interdisciplinary approach, from the perspective of trauma and memory studies, with a focus on the concept of “cultural trauma,” theorized by Jeffrey C. Alexander, as well as through a semiotic approach, focusing on the concepts of “denotation” and “connotation,” as discussed by Roland Barthes, in order to portray the means through which a hybrid medium, such as comics, combines cultural, visual, and textual aspects to create meaning.

ABSTRACT This study employs the intersection of trauma theory, neurobiology and anti-kitsch techniques to analyse Vanni: A Family’s Struggle Through The Sri Lankan Conflict. The paper highlights the structural, collective and ongoing aspects of suffering endured by Tamil civilians by drawing on Stef Craps’s postcolonial trauma theory in response to criticisms of Eurocentric trauma models. It contends that Vanni’s use of metonymic imagery, fragmented panel layouts and flashbacks ethically depict trauma without giving in to sentimentalism. The paper demonstrates how the graphic novels defy the excesses and reductions typical of mass-market depictions of genocide and war, drawing on Laurike in’t Veld’s concept of anti-kitsch. Additionally, it examines how Vanni’s formal characteristics mimic the neurological disturbances linked to trauma, in line with neurological understandings of memory, emotional dysregulation and PTSD. This study emphasises the graphic novel’s ability to bear witness to marginalised histories and promote critical empathy by bridging scientific and artistic approaches to trauma.

Adaptation has long been a foundational practice within Western culture, and in the contemporary moment, it functions as a central mechanism through which narratives are reshaped, recontextualized, and disseminated across diverse media landscapes. While adaptation is frequently associated with the transformation of novels into films, current scholarship increasingly emphasizes the expansive and multifaceted nature of adaptive processes. These processes extend beyond cinema into realms such as opera, theatre, radio, graphic art, digital games, and other transmedial forms, revealing adaptation as both a cultural norm and a creative strategy that underpins global literary culture. This paper investigates the broad spectrum of transmedial adaptations of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, focusing particularly on works produced since 2011. It argues that the novella’s persistent relevance and adaptability stem from its narrative opacity, moral ambiguity, and symbolic density, which invite reinterpretation across time and medium. The study examines overt and covert transformations of Heart of Darkness, attending to the varied ways in which its core themes—colonialism, alienation, power, and the limits of knowledge—are reframed in contemporary media. These adaptations range from digital video games and graphic novels to experimental theatre and immersive opera productions, each engaging with the source text in distinctive and often subversive ways. By tracing these recent transmedial adaptations, the paper situates Heart of Darkness as a pivotal case study in adaptation theory, demonstrating how canonical literature is continually reimagined to reflect new cultural, technological, and political contexts. In doing so, it reveals the adaptive afterlife of Conrad’s work as a lens through which to understand the shifting dynamics of media and narrative in the twenty-first century. The analysis ultimately highlights adaptation as a generative and evolving dialogue between texts, media, and audiences.

ABSTRACT This article explores the intricate narrative techniques and unconventional depiction of heroism in Alan Moore’s graphic novel, Watchmen. The novel employs a multifaceted narrative voice that intertwines multiple perspectives, challenging readers to engage with the story on various levels. This narrative complexity is enhanced through the use of multiple timelines and contrasting viewpoints, providing depth and ambiguity to the characters’ motivations and actions. The novel undermines traditional superhero tropes by presenting a form of scattered heroism, where characters exhibit flawed and often conflicting moral codes. Unlike conventional superheroes who are ideal of virtue, the protagonists in Watchmen embody a spectrum of ethical dilemmas, reflecting the complexity of real-world morality. This scattered approach to heroism invites readers to question the nature of power, responsibility, and the role of heroes in society. By analysing the narrative structure and character dynamics, this paper examines how Watchmen redefines the superhero genre, offering a critical commentary on the limitations and implications of decentralised heroism. Through its innovative storytelling, Watchmen remains a central work that continues to influence the landscape of graphic novels and popular culture.