Abstract
Presented in visual-textual form, this paper draws on speculative comics created in a youth workshop facilitated for participants aged 15 – 18 years old. Through the media of visual-textual storytelling, the research explores narrative themes connected to the imaginings of “future worlds” as envisioned by the young participants. This paper focuses specifically on the role world-building plays in communicating climate issues and activism amongst the youth. Situated at the forefront of global implications entwined in the climate crisis, youth have the most at stake and yet remain largely outside the sphere of decision-making regarding climate policy and practice. Through the lens of arts-based research, the creation of future visual narratives reveals not only key constructions such as identity and worldview as integrated into the storytelling; they are quite literally drawn into the text. This paper explores the connections between textual and visual constructions of world and self, and how the affordances within comics may foster knowledge related to both resilience and hope in young participants. Through the craft of graphic narratives, this work explores how the mechanisms within the form itself offer unique opportunities for expression by young people regarding current and future environmental narratives—and asks in what ways may working through this visual-textual media simultaneously inform current climate issues while encouraging agency in young participants.
Presenters
Andrea HoffStudent, PhD Candidate in Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Human Impacts and Responsibility
KEYWORDS
Youth Perspectives, Speculative Fiction, Comics, Posthumanism, Climate Anxiety, World Building
