Sequentials:
A TRACE Innovation Initiative Project
The TRACE Innovation Initiative, a research endeavor maintained through the University of Florida’s Department of English, is proud to introduce Sequentials, a new hub for scholarship drawn in comics form. Following Scott McCloud’s 1993 publication Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, as well as other visual comics scholarship from authors such as Nick Sousanis and Neil Cohn, Sequentials solicits and publishes interpretations of various academic subjects or themes drawn and explained through the comics medium. As a TRACE Initiative project, Sequentials contributes to the flourishing field of comics scholarship and seeks to expand the production and circulation of knowledge.
This long-term project asks contributors to (re)imagine the meanings of both the subject they are drawing about and the form that their interpretation takes. By encouraging contributors to conceptualize their work in a distinctly visual way, this project highlights the unique creative capabilities of the comics medium and reflects TRACE’s overall focus on innovative research, writing, and knowledge production. The Sequentials project seeks to display and circulate original visual scholarship, providing alternative modes of meaning making and centralizing issues of form.
Our first Call for Comics will centralize postmodernism in all of its possible meanings and manifestations. Please see the full Call below. Please distribute widely to both academic and creative colleagues. We appreciate any circulation you could offer. Any questions or comments can be referred to Ashley Manchester at manchester@ufl.edu or Sid Dobrin atsdobrin@ufl.edu.
Postmodernism:
Visualizing a Movement
Call for Comics:
The late-20th Century ushered in a multi-disciplinary reaction to modernism that influenced various disciplines, artists, and thinkers. Since this time, postmodernism has been taken up in literature, film, music, philosophy, architecture, theory, and more. Despite its widespread influence, however, postmodernism remains a debated movement with many scholars and creators arguing that it lacks clarity and meaning. Characterized by an emphasis on deconstruction and critical theory, postmodernism has evolved in past decades to include innovative, if contested, ideas and structures.
For Sequentials’ first Call For Comics, we seek visual interpretations of the concept of postmodernism (please refer to a more in-depth description of Sequentials below). Submissions must be illustrated in comics form and can visualize a particular aspect of the concept or the movement as understood through a particular discipline. Additionally, submissions may visualize an explanation and/or critical inquiry of the subject.
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
· Postmodernist literature, music, art, or history (or another relevant discipline)
· Postmodernist architecture
· Postmodernist thinkers and/or their theories
· Digital postmodernism
· Postmodernist representations
· Critiques of postmodern texts, art, or music pieces
By “comics,” we loosely mean illustrated, sequential images that may or may not incorporate words and may or may not be bounded within panels or other boundary markers. We invite submissions from individuals in all academic disciplines, regardless of their level of experience with comics or illustration “skills.” Further, submissions will be welcomed from non-academics, as well, and the editorial team at Sequentials will consider all submissions equally.
We strongly encourage contributors to consider how the comics form can interpret, envision, or reflect meanings associated with the given topic. To submit, please send high-resolution image submissions tohttps://trace.submittable.com/
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Ashley Manchester
Doctoral Fellow
Reviews Editor, ImageTexT
Editor, Sequentials
University of Florida
Dept. of English
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