Dr Harriet EH Earle FHEA, PhD
Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing
Summary
I joined the Department of Humanities as a Lecturer in English and Creative Writing in 2017. I teach on BA Creative Writing and BA English. My research focuses on representations of conflict and trauma in visual culture, especially comics. I investigate the ways in which conflict and violence can be represented on the page and how this helps us to understand PTSD and trauma. I am the author of Comics: An Introduction (2020) and Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War (2017).
About
I am a comics and pop culture scholar, with special interest in representations of trauma, conflict, and violence. I have published a range of papers and books on the topic. I am the editor of Global Perspectives in Comics Studies, which publishes a broad sweep of books on comics as an international form. Since 2020, I have worked with the Centre for War, Atrocity, and Genocide at Nipissing University in Canada, where I am a research fellow.
Although I am primarily a theoretician, I teach on the Creative Writing BA and very much enjoy bringing my research into the practical arena. I’m interested in socially-engaged writing and the ways in which we can use our creative outputs as tools for social engagement and social change, a theme that comes through in all my teaching.
Specialist areas of interest
Writing with images
Socially-engaged writing
Comics studies
Representations of traumatic experience and violence
Science Fiction
Conflict and war narratives
Teaching
Subject area
English
Courses taught:
- BA Creative Writing
- BA English
Modules taught:
- Writing Live (Level 4)
- Creative Non-Fiction (Level 5)
- Counterculture and Creativity (Level 6)
- The Contemporary Writer (MA)
Research
I am writing my third monograph, on the Vietnam War in American comics. It will be a comprehensive study of the ways in which comics from 1945 to the present day have engaged with the USA’s longest war.
I am also working on an edited collection on the Netflix series BoJack Horseman and several smaller projects on PTSD in comics and television. All of my research aims to answer the question 'so what'? I want to write about why we should care about these issues. What is it about the current climate that makes comics important documents in the wider discussions of people and politics?
The Centre for War, Atrocity, and Genocide at Nipissing University, Canada
Publications
Journal articles
Earle, H. (2024). How do comics engage with the Vietnam War? Two photography case studies. Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture, 22 (2). https://americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2023/earle.htm
Earle, H. (2021). Traumatic Absurdity, Palimpsest, and Play: A Slaughterhouse-Five Case Study. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. http://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2021.1951787
Earle, H. (2020). The Politics of Lace in Kate Evans’ Threads: From the Refugee Crisis (2017). The Comics Grid : Journal of Comics Scholarship, 10 (1), 13. http://doi.org/10.16995/cg.215
Earle, H., & Clark, J. (2019). Telling national stories in American Horror Story. European journal of American culture, 38 (1), 5-13. http://doi.org/10.1386/ejac.38.1.5_7
Earle, H. (2018). A new face for an old fight: Reimagining Vietnam in Vietnamese-American graphic memoirs. Studies in Comics, 9 (1), 87-105. http://doi.org/10.1386/stic.9.1.87_1
Earle, H. (2018). Conflict then; trauma now : reading Vietnam across the decades in American comics. European Journal of American Culture, 37 (2), 159-172. http://doi.org/10.1386/ejac.37.2.159_1
Earle, H. (2017). Epistemic Breaks, Post-9/11 Trauma, and Siri Hustvedt. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 30 (3), 198-202. http://doi.org/10.1080/0895769x.2016.1273753
Earle, H. (2017). “A Convenient Place for Inconvenient People”: madness, sex and the asylum in American Horror Story. The Journal of Popular Culture, 50 (2), 259-275. http://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12508
Knowles, S., Peacock, J., & Earle, H. (2016). Introduction: Trans/formation and the graphic novel. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52 (4), 378-384. http://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1228513
Earle, H. (2016). Strange migrations: an essay/interview with Shaun Tan. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52 (4), 385-398. http://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1219139
Earle, H. (2016). Creating the traumatic body : female genitals as wounds in Antichrist. Film International, 14 (1), 35-43. http://doi.org/10.1386/fiin.14.1.35_1
Earle, H.E.H. (2014). My Friend Dahmer: the comic asBildungsroman. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 5 (4), 429-440. http://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2014.916329
Earle, H. (n.d.). ‘And Babies?’: The Representation of Mỹ Lai in Vietnam War Comics. Amerikastudien.
Book chapters
Earle, H. (2023). ‘Art Imitating Life: Affect and the Aesthetic of Trauma in Holocaust Comics and Cinema’. In Artful Breakdowns: The Comics of Art Spiegelman. Univ. Press of Mississippi
Earle, H.E.H., & Lund, M. (2023). Introduction. In Identity and History in Non-Anglophone Comics. (pp. 1-16). Routledge India: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003386841-1
Earle, H.E.H. (2022). Series editor's preface. (pp. xvi).
Earle, H. (2021). 30 Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis. In Handbook of Comics and Graphic Narratives. (pp. 589-600). De Gruyter: http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110446968-034
Earle, H. (2019). Persepolis. In Handbook of Comics and Graphic Narratives. De Gruyter
Earle, H. (2019). Comics and Graphic Novels. In The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction. Routledge
Earle, H. (2018). “The sky is darkened by gods”’: Spirituality, Strength and Violence in Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers and Saints. In Cultures of War in Graphic Novels Violence, Trauma, and Memory. Rutgers University Press
Books
Earle, H.E.H. (2023). Aren't You Bojack Horseman? Critical Essays on the Netflix Series. McFarland.
Earle, H. (2020). Comics An Introduction. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Comics-An-Introduction/Earle/p/book/9780367322410
Earle, H. (Ed.). (2019). Gender, Sexuality and Queerness in American Horror Story Critical Essays. McFarland. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/gender-sexuality-and-queerness-in-american-horror-story/
Earle, H. (Ed.). (2019). Gender, Sexuality and Queerness in American Horror Story Critical Essays. McFarland. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/gender-sexuality-and-queerness-in-american-horror-story/
Earle, H. (2017). Comics, trauma, and the new art of war. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/C/Comics-Trauma-and-the-New-Art-of-War2
Earle, H.E.H., & Lund, M. (n.d.). Identity and History in Non-Anglophone Comics. Routledge India. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003386841
Other activities
Editorial Board - The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
Editor - Global Perspectives in Comics Studies
Postgraduate supervision
PhD in History and Visual Narratives (2nd supervisor)
Graphic narratives and comics
Literatures of war and violence
Trauma