Drawing the Weighman: negotiating the historical gaze in the comic-book adaptation of the literary memoir Pilgrimage from Nenthead

Dodds, Nick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6852-5995 (2024) Drawing the Weighman: negotiating the historical gaze in the comic-book adaptation of the literary memoir Pilgrimage from Nenthead. In: 26th Arts Research Initiative: Art as Resistance: Creative Practice in Austerity Britain, 20 November 2024, Stanwix Theatre, University of Cumbria, Carlisle, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This presentation addresses the adaptation of the literary memoir into a long-form comic book, and in particular, the inherent challenges faced by the practitioner in transforming the linguistic source into the tri-modal medium of comics*; in surmounting the constraints to fidelity that define real-life accounts, and how historical subjects may be represented or performed. The Pilgrimage from Nenthead narrative dates from 1938 and is a fascinating one — all the more so for me personally, because the author, narrator, and chief protagonist, is my great-grandfather Chester Armstrong. Consequently, there is a familial and emotional connection to negotiate in the process of interpretation. The adaptation, from the literary source into the comics vernacular, presents an opportunity to engage with and intervene in my great-grandfather’s testimony; to process through the act of image-making; to expand, to question, to interpolate through the lens of the present.

*comics — image/text/sequential design
For further information see Polysèmes, 29: https://doi.org/10.4000/polysemes.10835

‘The local is the international, the national is the parochial’ (Leonard). The focus of this University of Cumbria Arts Research Initiative (ARI) conference is to explore the role of creative practice as a form of socio-political engagement, with a focus on the evolving intersection of art, ideology, identity and place within the neoliberal world. Set in the context of North-West England, this conference brings together artists, writers arts organisers and academics to interrogate how creative practice responds to, reflects, and challenges the received conventions of the so-called therapeutic institution. Presentations and discussions will address how creative practice engages critically with issues and notions of economic migration, place, climate, authority and social class. Situating creative practice within both local, regional and national contexts, the conference seeks to enable a critical dialogue on its relation to communities, both real and imagined, within the neoliberal epoch.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Departments:	Institute of Arts > Graphics and Photography
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	27 Nov 2024 10:59
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2024 10:15
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/8493

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