Making Visible the Nativism-Ableism Matrix: The Rhetoric of Immigrants’ Comics

Rhetoric Review Oct 2019

Making Visible the Nativism-Ableism Matrix: The Rhetoric of Immigrants’ Comics

Layli Maria Miron Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

Nativist ideology, which dominates public discourse, implements ableist hierarchies to reduce immigrants to diseases of the body politic. Immigrants’ graphic narratives, on the other hand, reveal the disabling effects of xenophobic environments. Rhetoricians have begun to recognize comics’ persuasive potential but thus far have not explored their role in immigration rhetoric. Using this medium’s affordances, immigrants critique the nativism-ableism matrix, as exemplified by Parsua Bashi’s comics memoir about immigrating to Switzerland from Iran, Nylon Road (2006/2009). Bashi’s self-worth, displaced by her unreceptive context, depends on accepting a mental (dis)ability. Her comic counters nativism’s eugenic underpinnings by visualizing variation.

Journal: Rhetoric Review
Published: 2019-10-02
DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2019.1655307
Open Access: Closed
Topics: disability studies

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Cites in this index (6)

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Uthappa (2017)

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White (2016)

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Molloy (2015)

“I Just Really Love My Spirit”: A Rhetorical Inquiry into Dissociative Identity…

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