Postcolonial graphic novels in Bookshelf.
This is the trippiest work in this year’s Bookshelf.
Bookshelf on “United States of Banana“
BRILL: Over Three Centuries of Scholarly Publishing
United States of Banana, Postcolonial Graphic Novel
“United States of Banana: A Graphic Revolution is a postmodern graphic novel, adding illustrations by Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren to parts of Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi’s 2011 postmodern text (also called USB). The result is a complex tale about U.S. imperialism and Puerto Rican independence, featuring the Statue of Liberty (who has a Jewish cat), Chico Marx, Zarathustra, Don Quixote, René Magritte, Fidel Castro, Hamlet, Donald Trump, and many others debating such issues as global warming, terrorism, immigration, mass incarceration, and much more, all in the name of anticolonialism. An introduction by Amanda M. Smith and Amy Sheeran, professors of Latin American Literature and Spanish, respectively, provides important help in unpacking the narrative, citing multiple scholarly sources. This is the trippiest work in this year’s Bookshelf.” –Bookshelf 2021.
“United States of Banana: A Graphic Novel is a work of metamorphoses and of becomings, masterfully achieved through the image inspiring words of the iconic Latinx poet and radical thinker Giannina Braschi and the artwork of Joakim Lindengren, whose illustrations give them a bizarre and beautiful twist. Where Braschi parodies—always with utmost respect—the history of literature, Lindengren does the same with the history of art (classical and contemporary), and together they have created a book of words and images, an artefact, an event.” —Latinx Spaces
Read more about Postcolonial Literature
- The Postcolonial Graphic Novel and Trauma: From Maus to Malta.
- Towards a postcolonial critical literacy: Bhimayana and the Indian graphic novel.
- Postcolonial Traumas.
- “Submarine Urbanism: Cities People Make in ‘the Here and the Elsewhere’.” Rethinking Urbanism.
- “United States of Banana, A Graphic Novel: A Book of Liberation and Becomings.” Latinx Spaces.
- “Is September 11th a Laughing Matter?” La Bloga. Postcolonial Graphic Novels.
- “On Nations Without Borders,” Global Middle East into the 21st Century.
- A Discourse with Identity: An Exploration of Postcolonial Dynamics in Graphic Novels.
- Graphic Heritage: Exploring Postcolonial Identities and Vietnamese Spaces in the Francophone Graphic Novel