Studies in 20th- and 21st-Century Literature (368-0-20)
Topic
Graphic Novels: Picturing History
Instructors
Ilana Vine Larkin
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-329: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
Graphic novels have recently achieved a place in literature far from their origins in serials and superhero stories. From retellings of classic novels, to fantasy epics, to published compendiums of webcomics, the graphic novel is one of the fastest growing genres. In particular, graphic novels have become an important site through which to retell individual and collective histories, from coming-out memoirs to Indigenous retellings of historical events usually occluded from Western history books. This class will focus on the graphic novel as a form of life-writing that documents both personal and social histories. How does the graphic novel's form make it particularly suited for this kind of work? What kinds of political visions of the past are graphic novels contesting and rewriting? And how does the graphic novel's popularity influence our understanding of the digital age and its dissemination of information? Reading texts such as Art Spiegelman's Maus and Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, both texts recently at the center of controversial school bans, we will investigate how these books aim to retell history and how their visual form influences the debate about their place in schools. What political possibilities do such texts offer us as they write their graphic lives?
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion.
Evaluation Method
Papers, presentation.
Class Materials (Required)
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman (ISBN: 0679406417), March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (ISBN: 1603093001), Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (ISBN: 037571457X), Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (ISBN: 0544709047), Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (ISBN: 1549304003), Stitches: A Memoir by David Small (ISBN: 9780393338966), They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott (ISBN: 1603094504), American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (ISBN: 1250811899).
Texts will be available at: Norris.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area