Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture

The book "Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture" explores the interdisciplinary connections between comics, literature, and artistic modernism, highlighting the shared historical circumstances and diverse critical approaches of a diverse group of scholars.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 15 January 2024
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi

Since the early 1990s, cartoonist Art Spiegelman has argued that comics are the natural heir of the aesthetic tradition associated with the modernist movement of the early twentieth century. In recent years, scholars have begun to place greater importance on the shared historical circumstances of early comics and literary and artistic modernism.

Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture is an interdisciplinary exploration of myriad social, cultural, and aesthetic connections. Filling a gap in current scholarship, an impressively diverse group of scholars approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and methodologies. Drawing on work in literary studies, art history, film studies, philosophy, and material culture studies, contributors attend to the dynamic relationship between avant-garde art, literature, and comics. Essays by both established and emerging voices examine topics as divergent as early twentieth-century film, museum exhibitions, newspaper journalism, magazine illustration, and transnational literary circulation.

In presenting varied critical approaches, this book highlights important interpretive questions for the field. Contributors sometimes arrive at thoughtful consensus and at other times settle on productive disagreements. Ultimately, this collection aims to extend traditional lines of inquiry in both comics studies and modernist studies and to reveal overlaps between ostensibly disparate artistic practices and movements.

Weight: 528g
Dimension: 155 x 234 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496849588