University Catalogs

This course aims to read and study a specific kind of narrative we call "graphic novel." The term itself is often a point of contention, but the purpose of this course is not to defend the validity of the term or the medium. "Comic books" and "graphic novels" are not endangered animals. Rather, we will use this example of "sequential art" to think through the ways this genre intersects, uses, and informs various other narrative and artistic forms as well as the way the genre may be unique with its own way of producing meaning. Comics involve a hybrid strategy of image and text, so we will attempt to keep both aspects in mind throughout the semester, never forgetting that comics are neither purely "visual" nor purely "textual." Since comics are often wedded-in mainstream culture-with certain kinds of content (e.g. superheroes), we will also investigate the characteristics of different "genres" within comics, as well as various questions about literariness.