141239 SE Graphic Novels and Cartoons in the Arab World (2026S)

Until the 21st century, Arabic-language comics and graphic narratives were primarily aimed at children and young people (even though the subtly subversive humor they employed may have also appealed to adults). Over the past twenty year a wide range of avant-garde and experimental graphic narratives has emerged that explore new forms of storytelling and graphic design and, in doing so, process traumatic experiences and draw attention to political and social injustices.
Authors such as Līnā Mirhiǧ, Zīna Abī Rāšid or Laylā ʽAbd al-Razāq address childhood memories from the time of the Lebanese civil war or the traumatic experiences of displacement from Palestine and life in refugee camps in Lebanon endured by the (grand)parental generation.
The Egyptian author Maǧdī aš-Šāfiʽī anticipates the uprisings of 2011 in his graphic novel mitrū (Metro), which was published in 2008, while Dīnā Muḥammad, in her work šubayk lubayk, combines supernatural and magical elements from the Arabic storytelling tradition with a critical portrayal of contemporary Egyptian society.
In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will examine the conditions of production and the compositional principles of works by the above-mentioned authors and jointly analyze text and image and the representational strategies they employ. Most of the selected primary works are already available in translation or were originally published in English or French, so students without prior knowledge of Arabic can also participate in the course.
In our seminar sessions, students of Arabic Studies will focus on linguistic features and prepare translations of the texts from Arabic. Students of Theatre, Film, and Media Studies will prepare analyses of aesthetic principles and dramaturgical structures—thus enabling us to benefit from each other’s disciplinary expertise. In addition, students are expected, as part of a presentation and a seminar paper, to introduce and analyze further works (in the case of Arabic Studies students: also to translate excerpts) and thereby deepen their ability to conduct independent academic research (a list of suggested topics will be distributed in the first session).