(2011) Alternative Literature: A Graphic Novels Course

(Capstone Paper) Maus by Art Spiegelman is an intersection of historic research and literary genres through an unusual mode making it worthy of canonization.

2012

With this joy that I remember, however, another is fused: that of possession in memory. Today I can no longer distinguish them: it is as if it were only a part of the gift of the moment I am now relating, that it, too, received the gift of never again being wholly lost to meeven if decades have passed between the seconds in which I think of it.

2015

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane Part of the American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Art Education Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Creative Writing Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Higher Education Commons, Illustration Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2014

Course Description This section of English 177: Literature and Popular Culture, The Graphic Novel was designed to teach students to " make compelling arguments about and in various media " and to produce a " professional-like final product that represents their work to the world at large. " While twice weekly lectures by Professor Robin Valenza explored the development of the graphic novel as a genre, my section meetings focused on multimodal composition, helping students hone analytical skills and guiding them to create multimodal texts. After analyzing comics as multimodal texts, students worked in teams to interview members of the comics community—cartoonists, librarians, comics store owners, researchers, etc.—and craft documentary videos. The course mobilized the analytic potential of the comics form and its multimodal nature to encourage production of authentic texts that students viewed as having value beyond the classroom. Published in Composition Studies, Special Issue on Comics and Multimodal Composition 43.1 (2015)

I sketch an agenda for innovative pedagogy and classroom-based research, individual and collaborative, centered on experimenting with “getting graphic” (Gorman, 2003) hands-on in the ESL syllabus, concentrating on graphic novels and biographies (abbreviated as GN). I wish to argue that TESL teachers need to begin to experiment with incorporating the genre of graphic novels and related graphic non-fiction narratives – and even comic books and Japanese-style manga and anime -- as an alternative multimodal form of text in EFL pedagogy.

Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature, 2013

The more common term to describe the texts that fall under the heading of “Graphic Narratives” is simply “comics.” “Graphic narratives” has gained popularity in the burgeoning field of comics studies because the term “comics” poses a couple of problems that “graphic narratives” avoids. First of all, “comics” implies a humorous tone, leading one to think of the comic strips serialized in newspapers from the late 19th century to the present day, many of which strips were, indeed, comic (although there were a number of newspaper strips that were not). Secondly, “comics” also connotes popular, low, or mass culture, a key facet of graphic narratives’ history, but one that is just that, historical. Today, comics are widely recognized as a major aesthetic and literary medium. Indeed, no other aesthetic form has experienced such a radical revaluation by literary critics, art historians, and cultural studies scholars in the past two decades than graphic narratives.

International Conference "Experimental Narratives from the Novel to Digital Storytelling", University of London, UK, 26-27 February, 2015

Ever since Will Eisner marketed 'A Contract with God' (1978) as a “graphic novel”, the term has experienced a stellar career in the field of long-form comics. However, the term itself has found little critical attention. Is it more than a convenient marketing term? In particular, to which extent can graphic novels be called novels? My paper explores this question from four vantage points: First, is the narrative mode of long-form comics similar to linear narrative in literary texts? In particular, can they reach the complexity commonly attributed to literary texts? Second, do long-form comics fulfill a social function similar to 18th-century literary novels, chronicling the ordinary lives of everyday (bourgeois) hero/in/es? Third, to which extent does the label “graphic novel” serve as a tool for the claim for canonicity, competing with literary texts? And finally, are graphic novels indeed a timely version of the literary novel in a visual age?

Sane Journal Sequential Art Narrative in Education, 2010

Classic X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men # 196. I further claim that due to comics" history as texts that have been "lumped together" regarding their literary and pedagogical merit despite the variety of genres and topics they address and as texts that have often met with suspicion or apprehension from many teachers and other facets of society, by considering the medium for integration into the classroom, teachers are taking steps to initiate learning rooted in contact zone principles. Getting Started: The Vocabulary of the Contact Zone Contact zone theory has a complex terminology. Herein, I define terms before explicating examples from X-Men and other comics, graphic novels, and proto-comics texts that illustrate the terms at work. I start with a definition of the contact zone itself and then offer definitions for the terms that stem from that over-arching construct: Contact zones are defined by Pratt as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in the contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today" and where those involved in the educational experience may "reconsider the models of community that many of us rely on in teaching and theorizing and that are under challenge today" (Pratt 2002, p.4). Essential to contact zones are safe houses. Safe houses are "social and intellectual spaces where groups can constitute themselves as horizontal, homogeneous, sovereign communities with high degrees of trust, shared understandings, [and] temporary protection from legacies of oppression" (Pratt 2002, p.17). Pratt situates contact zone theory in autoethnography and autoethnographic text, defined as text "in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with 2

Teachers often feature graphic novels in college courses, and recent research notes how these texts can help make the process of reading more engaging as well as more complex. Graphic novels help enhance a variety of " literacies " ; they offer bold representations of people dealing with trauma or marginalization; they explore how " texts " can be re-invented; they exemplify how verbal and visual texts are often adapted; they are ideal primers for introducing basic concepts of " post-modernism. " However, two recurring textual complications in graphic novels can pose difficulties for students who are writing about ethical questions. First, graphic novels often present crucial scenes by relying heavily on the use of verbal silence (or near silence) while emphasizing visual images; second, the deeper ethical dimensions of such scenes are suggested rather than discussed through narration or dialogue. This article will explain some of the challenges and options for writing about graphic novels and ethics.