Depiction of the Sacred in Visual and Textual Forms

FAIN: FT-249058-16

Ken Koltun-Fromm
Haverford College (Haverford, PA 19041-1392)

A book-length study of the visual features of religious expression.

My work in comic studies focuses on representations of the sacred in graphic mediums to better interrogate the visual features of religious expression. Questions concerning textual authority, text/image relation, cultural dimensions of seeing, and conflicting modes of visual representation dominate this research agenda, as they do much of the humanities. Graphic narratives can help us see how claims to the sacred arise in visual and textual forms, and the ways in which argumentative structures lay claim to reader assent. These methodological and humanistic interests engage three interrelated projects: 1) the preparation of an outline for the introductory chapter of Sacred Texts and Comics, a volume I am co-editing with Assaf Gamzou; 2) the design of a Wordpress website for contributors to the co-edited volume and the broader public; and 3) the drafting of “Representations of the Sacred in Craig Thompson’s Habibi,” my independent chapter for the edited volume.

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