Occupy Comics

When writing the Introduction for The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature with Brian McHale and Joe Bray, I was thinking about the possible futures of experimental literature.

I wrote:

"The present experimental literature, of globalisation and/or altermodernism, seeks to challenge the forces of globalisation, internationalism, and capital markets. In keeping with such subversion, current events such as the 'Occupy Wall Street' campaign might fuel literary reactions. 'Occupy Wall Street' began on the 17th September 2011 in Manhattan's Financial District, and spread to major cities in the Western world. Other recent unrest is not unconnected: the 2010/2011 violent civil uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia stemming from political corruption, democratic deficiency, and fiscal problems, and in Greece and Italy in relation to the Eurozone debt crisis. We may, therefore, envisage an experimental literature that addresses what may be seen as the contaminated rule of capitalism."

Unbeknown to me at the time, but newly discovered, my predication was already coming to fruition in the form of Occupy Comics.

Occupy Comics is a project in its earlier stages. It stems from the conviction that the Occupy Wall Street campaign was originally promoted using art and particularly comic art.


This poster, for instance, designed to promote the campaign clearly draws not only on the iconography of street artist Shepard Fairey's O'Bama poster but also graphic art and in particular the cover art of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta.

The idea behind Occupy Comics  is to tell the stories of the Occupy campaign (without the demonisation that media coverage often injected) through art and stories.

Here's the promotional video:

For more information about the campaign, you can go to the Kickstarter site or to Occupy Comics.

Altermodenist Fiction

I've recently completed editing The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature, with Brian McHale and Joe Bray. As part of the collection, I wrote an essay on 'Altermodernist Fiction'. Obviously, I can't share that here, but I'm sure a few details won't do any harm!

Altermodernism is, according to Nicolas Bourriaud, the cultural milieu in which we now find ourselves. Bouriaud introduced this conception of the present epoch and its artistic movement in the most recent triennial at London art institute Tate Britain in 2009. The exhibition, which Bourriaud curated, continued the Tate's triennial project in showcasing the best in new British art. The exhibition featured artists such as Charles Avery, Peter Coffin, David Noonan amongst others.

In the exhibition catalogue, Bouriaud reveals that, to some extent, altermodernism has a literary inspiration: the writings of W. G. Sebald. As such, in my essay 'Altermodernist Fiction', I consider the features of contemporary experimental altermodernist fiction. As I explain, altermodernism is "defined by an implicitly politicised aesthetic resistance to globalisation, refusing standardisation, stability, or stasis". Moreover, altermoderist fiction (in line with Bourriaud's consideration of altermodernist art practices are characterised by the treatment of Form, Time, and Identity.

In the essay, I provide analysis of four texts: W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn, Liam Gillick's Erasmus is Late, Brian Castro's Shanghai Dancing, and Charles Avery's The Islanders.