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English 5413-WB: Comics and Graphic Narratives

Course Location: RB 3047 Class Times: Friday, 11:30am–2:30pm

Table of Contents Table of Contents ...... 1 Instructor Information ...... 1 Course Description/Overview ...... 1 Course Objectives and/or Learner Outcomes ...... 1 Course Resources ...... 2 Required Course Text(s) ...... 2 Course Website(s) (if applicable) ...... 2 Course Schedule ...... 2 Assignments and Evaluation ...... 4 Assignment Policies ...... 5 Details of Assignments ...... 5 Marking Standards ...... 6 Collaboration/Plagiarism Rules ...... 6 Course Policies ...... 6

Instructor Information • Instructor: Daniel Hannah • Office: RB 3039 • Telephone: ext. 8663 • Email: [email protected] • Office Hours: Mon., 1pm–2pm

Course Description/Overview This course will examine recent trends in graphic narrative and consider a range of theoretical approaches to reading the form of comics. Some of the questions this course will consider include: what kinds of questions about adaptation are raised by graphic rewritings of? what do graphic narratives reveal to us about the ethics and limits of representation? how do comics reconfigure familiar genres and narrative modes of life- writing, history, reportage, and fiction? what challenges do visual narratives (or imagetexts) pose to the conventions of literary criticism and theory?

Course Objectives and/or Learner Outcomes Students who have completed all the assigned readings, attended all the classes, partaken in class discussions, and submitted all assignments, should be able to:

• discuss and write about the formal features and challenges of comics and graphic narratives • identify key trends in comic studies 2

• think independently and critically about issues raised by comics and graphic narratives • use library resources to research a topic in comics studies and present their findings to a class of graduate students • lead class discussion effectively

Course Resources

Required Course Text(s) • Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics • Paul Auster, City of Glass • Auster, Karasik, Mazzucchelli, City of Glass: The • Octavia Butler, Kindred • Damian Duffy and John Jennings, Octavia Butler’s Kindred • Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen • G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel, Volume I: No Normal • Alison Bechdel, Are You My Mother? • Emil Ferris, My Favourite Thing is Monsters • Nick Ornaso, Sabrina • David Mazzucchelli, • , Building Stories

Course Website(s) (if applicable) • Desire2Learn

Course Schedule

January 11

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

Secondary: Thierry Groensteen, “The Impossible Definition”; Nick Sousanis, “Rethinking (through) comics: Unflattening”

You could also check out Michael Chaney’s TedxDartmouth talk from 2011: “How to Read a Graphic Novel” (available on YouTube).

*** GRAPHIC ADAPATATIONS

Jan. 18

Paul Auster, City of Glass Auster, Karasik, Mazzucchelli, City of Glass: The Graphic Novel

Secondary: David Coughlan, “Paul Auster’s City of Glass: The Graphic Novel” 3

Jan. 25

Octavia Butler, Kindred Damian Duffy and John Jennings, Octavia Butler’s Kindred

Secondary: Sean Carleton, “Drawn to Change: Comics and Critical Consciousness”

*** REIMAGINING SUPERHEROES

Feb. 1

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen

Secondary: Thierry Groensteen, “Comics as Network” Christopher Rowe, “Dynamic Drawings and Dilated Time: Framing in Comics and Film”

Feb. 8

G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel, Volume I: No Normal

Secondary: Sarah Gibbons, “‘I don’t exactly have quiet, pretty powers’: Flexibility and Alterity in Ms. Marvel”

*** GRAPHIC LIFE STORIES

Feb. 15

Lynda Barry, One! Hundred! Demons!

Secondary: Barbara Postema, excerpt from Narrative Structure in Comics: Making Sense of Fragments.

READING WEEK

Mar. 1

Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, This One Summer

Secondary: Jon Sutliff Sanders, “Theorizing Sexuality in Comics”

Mar. 8 (DROP DATE FOR WINTER COURSES) 4

Alison Bechdel, Are You My Mother?

Secondary: Hillary Chute, “Comics Form and Narrating Lives”

*** GRAPHIC MYSTERY

Mar. 15

Emil Ferris, My Favourite Thing is Monsters

Secondary: Pascale Lefèvre, “The Construction of Space in Comics”

Mar. 22

Nick Ornaso, Sabrina

GRAPHIC ARCHITECTURE

Mar. 29

David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp

Secondary: Catherine Labio, “The Architecture of Comics”

April 5

Ware, Building Stories

Secondary: Matt Godbey, “ Building Stories,’ Gentrification, and the Lives of/in Houses”; Georgiana Banita, “Chris Ware and the Pursuit of Slowness”

Assignments and Evaluation Assignment Due date Value Length Oral Seminar* Throughout term 25% 8-10 pages

Research Paper** April 12th 40% 15-20 pages

Secondary Reading Response*** Throughout term 15% 4-5 pages

Participation**** Throughout term 20% n/a

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Assignment Policies • All assignments are individual assignments and cannot be completed collaboratively. • Assignments are due by 4:30pm on the dates indicated. No late assignments are accepted. If you require an extension, you must ask for one BEFORE the due date. • All assignments must be in MLA format, double spaced, with 1” margins, and in 12 point font. • Exceptions to these policies are allowed only with a doctor’s note or other appropriate documentation.

Details of Assignments

* Oral seminar topics will be assigned in the first week of the course. On your assigned date, you are expected to begin the class with a seminar presentation lasting no more than 20 minutes. The presentation should develop one or two arguments in response to a particular aspect of your assigned primary text (the secondary reading assigned for each class should provide some ideas for possible seminar topics). On the day of the presentation, please bring two printed copies of your seminar paper (8-10 pages)—one for yourself and one for me. The paper should provide clear references to secondary sources (MLA format) and include a Works Cited. Students are also required to prepare a one-page handout for the class outlining their argument, main points, and 2-3 discussion questions. The student will be expected to lead discussion after the presentation of their seminar. The seminar and ensuing discussion will be graded on the basis of: quality of the typed seminar paper, attentiveness to primary and secondary material, clarity of handout, pertinence of discussion questions, responses of the presenter to questions raised in class, and ability to productively shape the ensuing discussion. Unless you have a documented medical reason, missing a seminar presentation will result in a grade of zero for both the oral and written component of that seminar. If you do have a legitimate reason, you will be asked to present your seminar in the next available time slot. If you know you will have to miss a seminar presentation, please consult with me as soon as possible so that we can reschedule your presentation.

** The research paper (15-20 pages) is on a topic of your choosing and must be approved by me by no later than March 17th. The research paper should be on a different primary text or texts than your oral seminar. Alternatively, the research paper might take the form of a creative work in comics form (10–15 pages) with an accompanying critical analysis (5–10 pages) that locates the creative work in a contextual framework with regards to the formal and cultural features of comics.

*** Topics for secondary reading responses will be assigned in the first week of the course. On your assigned date, you are expected to present to the class a critical reading of your assigned secondary article or excerpt, outlining the piece’s argument 6

and reflecting on the usefulness of its approach. The presentation should be no more than 10 minutes. On the day of the presentation, please bring two printed copies of your secondary reading response (4-5 pages)—one for yourself and one for me. The paper should provide clear references to secondary sources (MLA format) and include a Works Cited. Students are also required to prepare a one-page handout offering 2-3 discussion questions that follow on from the secondary reading.

**** Participation in this seminar course will be graded according to your involvement in class discussion—asking questions, responding to comments, offering criticisms—and on your level of attendance and preparation. For each class, you are expected to come with two prepared questions aimed at stimulating discussion—one question should address the primary text and the other should come out of your reading of the secondary material for that class. The questions should be typed and printed; bring two copies that you can submit one of them at the start of each class. Attendance for this class is mandatory – one missed class is OK but any further absences will result in 2% deductions from your 20% participation grade.

Marking Standards All assignments will be marked in accordance with the English Department Marking Standards1.

Collaboration/Plagiarism Rules Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's words and/or ideas. Not acknowledging your debt to the ideas of a secondary source, failing to use quotation marks when you are quoting directly, buying essays from essay banks, copying another student's work, or working together on an individual assignment, all constitute plagiarism. Resubmitting material you've submitted to another course is also academic dishonesty. All plagiarized work (in whole or in part) and other forms of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean, who is responsible for judging academic misconduct and imposing penalties. The minimum penalty for academic misconduct is a 0 on the assignment in question. It might also be subject to more severe academic penalties. See the Code of Student Behaviour.

Course Policies • Students in this course are expected to conform to the Code of Student Behaviour2.

• Lakehead University provides academic accommodations for students with disabilities3 in accordance with the terms of the Ontario Human Rights Code. This occurs through a collaborative process that acknowledges a collective obligation to

1 https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/departments/english/marking-standards 2 https://www.lakeheadu.ca/faculty-and-staff/policies/student-related/code-of-student-behaviour-and- disciplinary-procedures 3 https://www.lakeheadu.ca/faculty-and-staff/departments/services/sas 7

develop an accessible learning environment that both meets the needs of students and preserves the essential academic requirements of the course.

This course outline is available online through the English Department homepage4 and/or the Desire2Learn5 site for the course.

4 https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/departments/english 5 https://mycourselink.lakeheadu.ca/