Re-envisioning Time Across ImageTexts

Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Kai Mikkonen, The University of Helsinki, Finland

The topic of time in Comics Studies always received its bit of attention. Among its earlier examples, we find Scott McCloud’s exploration of gutter-spaces and sequentiality (1994) and Thierry Groensteen’s advanced theorisation of spatio-topical networks (1999), including more recent analyses of the topic, such as Kai Mikkonen’s exploration of time in The Narratology of Comic Art (2017), Jan Baetens’ multiple contributions to the topic (i.e. ‘Gap or Gag’ (2020), as well as Groensteen’s La Bande dessinée et le temps (2022). As ‘comics exist in time’ (Baetens, 2022), their temporal existence seems to stretch beyond purely spatial relations, including manifold variables that shape our perception of time, which constitute the growing body of research on time in comics, often following Bergsonian critique of spatiality (Conard & Lambeen, 2012). What is especially intriguing in this respect is the way in which temporal relations in imagetexts further resonate with our socio-political realities, in which historical metanarratives become naturalized through specific regimes of reading, looking, and more broadly, ‘experiencing’ time, and where story-time and discourse-time are further informed by the time ‘out there’ as our historical time. 

As a continuation of this critical polylogue, this conference seeks to provide a platform for furthering the discussion on time construction and perception in comics, while expanding the object of inquiry to include broader constellations of imagetexts: static printed and digital media where image and text intersect, merge, or collide in creative ways, including illustrated prose, collage, visual poetry, zines, film still assemblages, scrapbooks, and experimental mixed-media works.

This conference invites scholars, artists, and practitioners to explore the intersections between ImageTexts and dominant, as well as alternative/counter temporalities. We welcome contributions that investigate how ImageText media challenge or reconfigure dominant notions of time, duration, memory, futurity, historicity, and seriality. We are inviting you to submit a proposal for an in-person or hybrid paper that addresses the following research points and questions (but not limited to): 

• How do ImageTextual forms complicate and intersect with time and temporality? How is time spatialised in these ImageText works?
• What new temporalities emerge through multimodal experimentation (cyclical vs linear, past, present, and future, queer, mythical, speculative, or recursive)?
• How are continuity and change, progression and repetition performed in representing historical pasts, presents, and futures? And how might alternative temporalities offer counter-narratives to hegemonic historical frameworks, colonial chronologies, and temporal regimes?
• How do we perceive time in ImageTexts? What are the tensions between the reader’s time and narrative time? 
• What is the role of the gap/gutter/closure in works with loose narrativization (graphic poetry, one-panel comics, collages, scrapbooks)?
• How do temporalities change within the shifting publishing landscape (i.e., times of production vs. times of consumption)? 
• How do specific formal features (i.e., print, digital, a combination of both) of the elected medium affect the temporal perception and the play with different temporalities?

We encourage proposals from a wide range of disciplines, including literature, comics studies, visual studies, media studies, cultural studies, and digital studies. Submissions may also include creative-critical or practice-based contributions.

Paper proposals

We welcome proposals in English for 20-minute papers. Please upload an abstract (300 words) and a short bio (100 words) through this form. The deadline for abstracts is March 6. You will receive a confirmation letter by the end of April. 

We are happy to offer speakers partial reimbursement of travel expenses as a lump sum of €85. If you require additional funding, please indicate this in the form.

We are looking forward to receiving your proposals, and feel free to get in touch with Svitlana Stupak (svitlana.stupak@uni-siegen.de) and Silvia Vari (silviaericavari@gmail.com) for any questions.