Contemporary American Comics and Graphic Novels 4219-SD0056
How to read comics? How can we understand the popularity of narratives about superheroes? Are comics strips and graphic novels the same medium? What is a comix? What is the connection between the medium of comics and youth culture? How do gender, race, and class function in key American comics? And what is problematic about the term “graphic novel”?
From superhero stories, through intimate comics about everyday life, to moving memoirs, the course will explore the role and importance of comics in American culture in the late 20th and 21st centuries. By examining comics published in the last 40 years, this course will also serve as an introduction to comics as a medium and storytelling in comics. Students will read and analyze selected American comics, graphic novels, and graphic memoirs published since the 1980s, on the examples of both mainstream and independent publications.
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completing the course, a student:
1. Knowledge
- understands how the narrative is built in the medium of comics
- is familiar with American comics genres
- uses terminology connected with comics studies
2. Skills
- is able to form arguments in discussions on the medium of comics
- is able to apply knowledge to analyze in-depth comics, graphic novels, and graphic memoirs
- is able to discuss topics studied in analyzed works of culture, in reference to gender, race, and class
3. Competencies:
- understands the role of comics in the American culture
- knows how to participate in a group work
- knows how to write an end-of-term paper on the topic related to comics
Assessment criteria
25%: Midterm
30%: Participation
20%: Essay
25%: Final test
Bibliography
Selected comics (subject to change):
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (2006)
Charles Burns, Black Hole (2005)
Daniel Clowes, Ghost World (1997)
Kelly Sue DeConnick & Valentine De Landro, Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine (2015)
Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (2017)
Gilbert Hernández, Jaime Hernández, Mario Hernández, Love and Rockets (1982)
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen (1987)
Art Spiegelman, Maus (1994)
Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki, Roaming (2023)
Adrian Tomine, Killing and Dying (2015)
G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel (2014)
Selected secondary texts (subject to change):
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993)
Douglas Wolk, Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean (2008)
Hillary Chute, Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere (2017)
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: