EJ RIhttps://doi.org/10.1177/1354066116656763
European Journal
of International Relations, Vol. 23(3) 581 –608
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DOI: 10.1177/1354066116656763
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Reading comics for the field of International Relations Theory, method and the Bosnian WarLene HansenUniversity
of Copenhagen, Denmark
AbstractThis article draws attention to a medium that has escaped the attention of International Relations scholars comics. Comics are combinations of text and drawings and they come in a variety of formats as newspaper strips, as stories printed in magazines and as long narratives presented in freestanding books. Comics have been central to how generations of children have encountered foreign places and comics artists have successfully
captured public attention, with comics offering explicit engagements with foreign policy events. Theoretically, comics provide a unique combination of text and images through which central questions on the research agenda of International Relations
scholars working on visuality, practices and intertextuality can be pursued. Drawing on comics scholarship, this article presents a theoretical framework aimed specifically at analysing comics as international relations. Methodologically, it provides criteria for the selection of comics understudy and a case study of three comics engaging the Bosnian War.
KeywordsBosnian War, comics, images, methodology, popular culture, poststructuralism
IntroductionThe goal of this article is to bring comics onto the research agenda of International Relations (IR. Comics area distinctive medium
with a particular cultural, sociological and economic history and away of using text and images that cannot be subsumed under