Research project Comics Region East Asia: Traditions, Translations and Transculturations
The aesthetic and cultural particularities of manga, manhwa, and manhua have been largely identified in contrast to the “West,” while comparisons within the East Asian region have remained underrepresented. This project foregrounds comics-related interrelations, going beyond the predominant focus on Japanese “influence” and discrete national cultures. It considers shared traditions, modern mediations, socio-political systems, and market developments.
Aimed at contributing to studies of graphic narratives and visual cultures at a global, while locally and historically situated scope, it is based on collaboration between experts in Chinese and/or Japanese and/or Korean studies, who are familiar with their local comics history and discourse, as well as recent scholarship in global comics studies, open-minded with respect to research on their immediate comics-cultural neighbors, and capable of communication in English.
