Elephants and DJs: Komiks and Disability Cover Image

Elephants and DJs: Komiks and Disability
Elephants and DJs: Komiks and Disability

Author(s): José Alaniz
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, Sociology of Art, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Russia; Comics; Disability; Amputee; Post-Soviet comics

Summary/Abstract: The article is an excerpt from a chapter in José Alaniz’s book Resurrection. Comics in Post-Soviet Russia (Columbus: Ohio State University Press 2022). The essay analyses post-Soviet Russian comics which represent mental/physical disabilities, by both non-disabled and disabled authors. It presents some key issues pertaining to disability in contemporary Russian culture and discusses the challenges of disability representation in the verbal/visual medium of comics in Russia. The essay focuses on the work of Yulia Nikitina, especially the short comics story Schism, and the first Russian graphic novel on a disability theme, I Am an Elephant by a disabled writer Vladimir Rudak (who uses a wheelchair) and non-disabled artist Len Uzhinova.

  • Issue Year: 2026
  • Issue No: 1 (67)
  • Page Range: 185-209
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: English
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