Lecture by American Literary Scholar to Focus on Comics as Witness to War

Hillary Chute, an American literary scholar and an expert on comics and graphic narratives, will give a talk titled “Comics as Documentary: Words, Images, and War” at the College of the Holy Cross, Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Her talk is free and open to the public.

Chute, associate professor of English at The University of Chicago, is author of the book “Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form,” forthcoming from Harvard University Press in December. In the book, she investigates how hand-drawn comics have come of age as a serious medium for engaging history. She explores the post-World War II environment in which Art Spiegelman, the American son of Holocaust survivors, and Hiroshima-bombing survivor Keiji Nakazawa concurrently developed comics as a form for addressing the fallout of war.

In her talk at Holy Cross, Chute will discuss why drawing can be an ethical practice of creating images of witness to war, with a focus on the comics of Nakazawa and Spiegelman.

Chute’s lecture is the inaugural Thomas More Lecture on the Humanities, presented by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross. The Thomas More Lectures explore ways the humanities illuminate moral dilemmas, enhance our capacity for understanding and empathy, and help us to imagine more just ways of living. Learn more about McFarland Center events and watch lectures online at holycross.edu/mcfarlandcenter.

About the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture: Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope. The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.