קול קורא // למאמרים (כתב עת): קומיקס לא-נרטיבי [אנגלית, גרמנית] דדליין לתקצירים=22.11.20

Open Section
In the fall of 2021, CLOSURE will once again offer a forum for all facets of comics studies. From literary, cultural, media, social and image research to the sciences and beyond: the seventh edition of CLOSURE continues our ongoing search for the best and most innovative articles and reviews representing the state of the art in comics research. We welcome detailed close readings as much as comics theory and pioneering approaches to the medium — our open section comprises a diverse range of interdisciplinary studies of all things ›comic‹.

Thematic Section: »Non-Narrative Comics«
What connects two panels, placed side by side? The default answer, more often than not, is ›narrative‹. Scott McCloud, for one, calls for an unravelling of the »Mysteries surrounding the invisible art of comics storytelling.« In issue #8 of Closure, we want to contest this narrative reduction – and uncover a non-narrative art of comics beyond storytelling. We seek articles that investigate how comics subtract narrative, withhold closure, stall storytelling – and theorize the unfamiliar constellations that emerge as a result. »Must Narrative Be Renounced?« (Groensteen) We invite contributors who experimentally answer ›yes‹ to this question and who outline the logical, formal, affective, designed connections that emerge in place of narrative.

Our issue investigates non-narrative comics beyond the diegetic, beyond sequence, towards abstraction. Rather than a sub-genre of comics, non-narrative can be explored as a fundamental formal affordance of the medium, exploiting its basic building blocks: its double view on the sequence and the layout of the panel and the page; its braiding of signs; its uncertain distribution of textual and visual elements; its marks on the page that do not have to coalesce into narrative worlds. This movement »beyond the diegetic and the narrative« (Molotiu) finds prototypical expression in … READ MORE