American Graphic: Disgust and Data in Contemporary Literature

Rebecca Clark's American Graphic explores the term "graphic" as contradictory, evoking the grotesque and promising geometrically streamlined forms. She argues that the graphic turn in contemporary literature is closely linked to the dynamics of identification, indexing the unseemliness of a lust for cool epistemological mastery over others. Clark analyzes the contemporary graphic along three specific axes: ethnographic, pornographic, and infographic, pairing canonical authors with works by Black and/or female creators to test the effects and affects of the double graphic across racialized and gendered axes of differences.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 308 pages
Publication date: 06 December 2022
Publisher: Stanford University Press

When we use the term "graphic," what do we really mean? Rebecca Clark delves into this intriguing question in her book American Graphic. The term "graphic" seems to evoke both the grotesque and the geometrically streamlined, with its association with graphs, diagrams, and user interfaces. However, Clark's innovation lies in exploring what happens when a moment in a work of literature is simultaneously graphic in both these ways.

Clark's answer suggests that the graphic turn in contemporary literature is intricately linked to the complex dynamics of identification. She reveals that this double graphic indexes the unseemliness of a lust for cool epistemological mastery over the bodies of others, particularly in our culture of information.

Clark analyzes the contemporary graphic along three specific axes: the ethnographic, the pornographic, and the infographic. In each chapter, she explicates the double graphic by reading a canonical author against literary, visual, and/or performance works by Black and/or female creators. By pairing works by Edgar Allan Poe, Vladimir Nabokov, and Thomas Pynchon with pieces by Mat Johnson, Kara Walker, Fran Ross, Narcissister, and Teju Cole, Clark tests the effects and affects of the double graphic across racialized and gendered axes of differences.

American Graphic forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth that disgust and data have become closely intertwined in our increasingly graph-centric world. It challenges us to consider the ways in which visual representations shape our understanding and perception of the world, and the ethical implications of this relationship. Through her meticulous analysis and thought-provoking insights, Clark offers a valuable contribution to the field of literary studies and beyond.

Weight: 394g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503634237