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Comics & Graphic Novels TR 9-10:30 Room: TBD Course Description Spring 2015 Prof. Jean-Christophe Cloutier ENG 103.001: Comics & Graphic Novels FBH 316 TR 9-10:30 Office Hours: TBD, & by appointment Room: TBD [email protected] Course Description: This course combines literary and historical approaches to investigate one of the most rapidly growing and increasingly influential forms of literature: the graphic novel. Popular yet understudied for over a century, comics are now critically recognized as a major form of communication and contemporary creative arts. The course represents an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge mirrored by the graphic novel’s joint ancestry in fine arts and literature. It will include a historical overview of the form’s development across the twentieth century, complete with analysis of relevant broader institutional and cultural factors illuminating the growth of American media culture more generally. Providing students with the critical skills necessary to read and understand this deceptively complex medium—and visual storytelling in general—the course exposes students to a series of works that define and redefine the genre while illustrating a variety of artistic & storytelling approaches to central themes of the American experience: politics, sexuality, class, censorship, violence, cultural and ethnic diversity. Readings will include classic and contemporary works by writers and artists such as Lynda Barry, Alison Bechdel, Charles Burns, R. Crumb, Neil Gaiman, Bernie Krigstein, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Harvey Pekar, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, and others (including selected Manga). In addition, we will read selections from graphic narrative theory and comics history, beginning with Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. Assignments will include weekly blurbs on Canvas, two short response papers, and a final. Fulfills requirements Sector 1: Theory and Poetics of the English Standard Major Sector 2: Language, Literature and Culture of the English Standard Major Sector 6: 20th Century Literature of the English Standard Major Sector III: Arts & Letters of the College's General Education Curriculum Required Texts (available at the Penn Book Center): - Barry, Lynda. One-Hundred Demons. - Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. - Burns, Charles. Black Hole. - Gaiman, Neil. Sandman: Dream Country (Vol. 3) - McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. - Miller, Frank. The Dark Knight Returns. - Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. - Ohba, Tsugumi & Takeshi Obata, Death Note, Vol. 1 - Sacco, Joe. Footnotes in Gaza. - Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale I & II. - Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Other assigned readings: these readings will be made available online through Canvas and, in most cases, put on reserve in Van Pelt Library. Readings on Canvas have a “*” next to them in the weekly schedule below. Requirements & Policies: The format of this course will be part lecture, part discussion. Attendance is required; please come to class prepared to pose and answer questions about the texts. Your final grade will be calculated as follows: • Participation and Attendance (10%) • Weekly Discussion Posts (20%) • 1st Short Response Paper: (20%) • 2nd Short Response Paper: (20%) • Final Paper (30%): WEEKLY SCHEDULE (subject to change) Week 1 Introductions Thursday, January 15th - Syllabus; Course Guidelines; - Introduction and brief history of comics and graphic novels Week 2 The Comics Language Tuesday, January 20th - Sabin, “What is a Comic?” (pdf)* - McCloud, Understanding Comics (Chapters 1-3) Thursday, January 22nd - McCloud, Understanding Comics (Chapters 4-6) - “Introduction,” Modern Fiction Studies, Winter 2006 (pp.767-773, pdf)* - Selected short comics from The Smithsonian Book of Newspaper Comics.* Week 3 Close-Reading Comics Tuesday, January 27th - Krigstein, “Master Race” (pdf)*—An exercise in close reading - Groensteen, “Why are Comics Still in Search of Cultural Legitimization?”* Thursday, January 29th - Spiegelman, “MAUS” Animal Comics #1 (1972) - Spiegelman, MAUS A Survivor’s Tale, I: My Father Bleeds History Week 4 Autobiography & Family Histories Tuesday, February 3rd - Spiegelman, MAUS A Survivor’s Tale, I: My Father Bleeds History (cont’d) Thursday, February 5th - Spiegelman, MAUS A Survivor’s Tale, II: And Here My Troubles Began - Doherty, “Graphic Art and the Holocaust”* Week 5 Autobiography & Family Histories Tuesday, February 10th - Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home (2006) Thursday, February 12th - Bechdel, Fun Home Week 6 Superhero Genre—History Tuesday, February 17th Early Superhero - Superman Chronicles, Vol. 1 (selections, pdf)* - Batman Chronicles, Vol. 1 (selections, pdf)* - Wonder Woman Chronicles, Vol. 1 (selections, pdf)* - Eco, “The Myth of Superman” (pdf)* Thursday, February 19th After Word War II - EC Comics; Crime Does Not Pay, selections, Tales from the Crypt, “Taint the Meat, It’s the Humanity”; “Judgment Day”* - MAD Magazine: Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood, “Superduperman”* - Sabin, “Seduction of the experienced?”* - Code of the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc.* Recommended: - “The sustained event: branding fantasies and the corporate blockbuster,” Chapter 6 from Brand Hollywood: Selling entertainment in a global media age (2008), by Paul Grainge. 1st Short Paper DUE [Friday, Feb. 20th] Week 7 Superhero Genre—Rebirth Tuesday, February 24th - Miller, The Dark Knight Returns (Book I) Thursday, February 26th Class Cancelled Week 8 Writer & Illustrator—Collaboration Tuesday, March 3rd - Miller, The Dark Knight Returns (cont’d; Books II-IV) - Film clips Thursday, March 5th - Neil Gaiman, Sandman: Dream Country: “Calliope;” - “Script: Calliope” Recommended: - Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, by Henry Jenkins (Introduction & Chapter Three) - Samuel Delany: Gaiman I, II, III (PDF) Week 9 SPRING BREAK Tuesday, March 10th No Class, Spring Break Thursday, March 12th No Class, Spring Break Week 10 Ushering the New Era Tuesday, March 17th - Moore & Gibbons, Watchmen (Chapters I-VI) Thursday, March 19th - Moore & Gibbons, Watchmen (Chapters VII-XII) - Selected clips from Watchmen (2009); Adapting Watchmen to the big screen - Lewis, “The Dual Nature of Apocalypse in Watchmen”* Week 11 The American Underground & a Look at Manga Tuesday, March 24th - Underground comics (selections)* - How the Underground changed how comics are sold - Pekar, Harvey. American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (selections) - Clips from American Splendor (2003) Thursday, March 26th - Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, Death Note, Vol. 1 (2003-2004) - Theorizing Manga and Otaku 2nd Short Paper DUE [Friday, March 27th] Week 12 Independent Voices—The Horror Tuesday, March 31st - Burns, Charles. Black Hole (2005) Thursday, April 2nd - Burns, Charles. Black Hole (cont’d) Week 13 Independent Voices—The Journalist Tuesday, April 7th - Sacco, Joe. Footnotes in Gaza (selections)--or other short works by Sacco Thursday, April 9th - Sacco, Joe. Footnotes in Gaza (selections)--or other short works by Sacco Week 14 Independent Voices—The Outcast Tuesday, April 14th - Lynda Barry, One Hundred Demons (2002) Thursday, April 16th - Lynda Barry, One Hundred Demons Week 15 Independent Voices—The Architect Tuesday, April 21st - Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2001) Thursday, April 23rd - Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (cont’d) Week 16 Final Images Tuesday, April 28th - Digital distribution and the case of Ware’s Building Stories - Webcomics: Class shares the comics they read online FINAL PAPER DUE: May 6th, 5pm. .
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