Download

Download Full Text (8.4 MB)

Description

This is the introductory chapter of Graphic Refuge Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics by Dominic Davies and Candida Rifkind.

Graphic Refuge is the first in-depth study of comics about refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and detainees by artists from the Global North and South. Co-written by two leading scholars of nonfiction comics, the book explores graphic narratives about a range of refugee experiences, from war, displacement, and perilous sea crossings to detention camps, resettlement schemes, and second-generation diasporas.

Through close readings of work by diverse artists including Joe Sacco, Sarah Glidden, Don Brown, Olivier Kugler, Jasper Rietman, Hamid Sulaiman, Leila Abdelrazzaq, Thi Bui, and Matt Huynh, Graphic Refuge shows how comics challenge dominant representations of the displaced to bring a radical politics of refugee agency and refusal into view. Beyond simply affirming the “humanity” of the refugee, these comics demand that we apprehend the historical construction of categories such as “citizen” and “refugee” through systems of empire, settler colonialism, and racial capitalism. The comics medium allows readers not only to visualize the lives of refugees but also refocuses the lens on citizen non-refugees—“we who can sleep under warm cover at night”, as Vinh Nguyen writes in his foreword—and interrogates their perceptions, aspirations, and beliefs.

ISBN

9781771126915

Publication Date

6-2025

Publisher

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

City

Waterloo

Disciplines

Other English Language and Literature

Comments

This chapter is licensed under a Creative Commons licence, Attribution–Noncommercial–No Derivative Works 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons licence, please contact WLU Press at press@wlu.ca

Introduction

Share

COinS