DEI-GN investigates the representations of disability in graphic narrative and their post-reading impact. As noted by Purcell (2021), “the visualization of the embodiment of disability” in graphic narrative greatly supports the emerging dialogue between literary works and disability studies. Thus far, however, the discourse on disability in graphic narrative remains limited to superhero and illness narratives, which pose impairments as problems to be eradicated. This project provides an encompassing method to analyze depictions of disabilities in the medium by leveraging the recent developments in comics narratology and disability studies. To investigate how focalization techniques shape readers’ perspective-taking and affective engagement with the experiential complexity of disabilities, it applies concepts from comics narratology (Mikkonen 2017; Horstkotte and Pedri 2022) alongside traditional narrative and stylistic techniques (Eisner 1985; McCloud 1993). Its turn to posthumanist disability theory, which accounts for the experiences of people, animals, and assistive devices (i.e., disability connectivities pace Gibson 2006), also underscores the role of community and disability as a universal phenomenon. To holistically identify representations of disability and their effects on readers’ sense-making processes, it refers to a broad range of genres and creators and substantiates its results with findings from focus groups with intersectional backgrounds.
