The course serves as a further investigation into the critical methodologies in popular culture studies. The focus of this Special Topics course will be devoted to comics (understood as both serialized comic strips and comic-books) and the more contemporary format of the ‘graphic novel’. Other forms of graphic storytelling ranging from tapestries to children’s book illustrations to the underground graphic productions of the counterculture will also be investigated. The course will begin by investigating some of the groundbreaking work which helped define comics as a medium in the early part of the 20^th century –indissolubly tying the form with the rise of visual culture within mass culture and the political economy of publishing- as well as cutting edge work in classical and contemporary comic books (both independent and mainstream, both within the commercial realm and a more discursively valued literary and artistic sphere). Although the focus of the course will be on the comics tradition developed in the US, special attention and specific sections of the course will also be devoted to the traditions of ‘sequential art’ in a global context with case studies on the Japanese ‘manga’ tradition and the underground politically infused ‘fumetti’ of 1970s Italy. The relation of the specific visual culture of comics with other mediums –particularly the cinema and gaming as well as the influences within other realms of popular culture such as popular recorded music will also be investigated.

In addition to this historical perspective the course will investigate the nature of the medium, the specificity of comics as a form of expression and the theoretical perspectives (including visual culture studies, narrative and narration, myth and genre, authorship, ideology, postmodernism, fan cultures and audience/reception studies) that have been brought to bear on the form and that will allow us to critically engage these works as ‘texts’.

Finally we will consider the contradictory ways in which difference, power and knowledge are articulated in cultural production and the ways in which they circulate within the social field as meaning and ideology, linking the methodological framework of the course with those encountered in other realms of ‘media studies’. The comic-book medium, at the intersection of image and text, is particularly suited for the development of specific and theoretically informed analytical skills while the growing importance of graphic novels within the contemporary cultural sphere attests to the need for a critically informed engagement with this medium as it comes into its own after years of marginalization.

By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate an informed appreciation of comics as an artistic and cultural practice and conceptualize graphic storytelling as a cultural and artistic process that is productive of complex meanings within the circuit of culture. Students will also be able to articulate their knowledge of a history of the medium and of its intersection with wider social, cultural and historical processes. More generally the course will constitute an important element in strengthening students’ core analytical, rhetorical and theoretical skills. 

Please note that frequent absences automatically lower your participation grade.

Three unexcused absences will result in your final grade for the course to be lowered by one full letter grade. Anything above five unexcused absences will result in failure.

Lateness: Students more than 10 minutes late are marked as absent. Late arrival (less than 10 minutes) is marked as such, and 3 late arrivals are counted as one absence.

Class procedure:   Students are requested to make sure their cell phones are turned off (and not just muted) at the start of class. 

Topics and Course Schedule (Note: This schedule is subject to change, so please check the course website for updates):

Honors students will receive an additional reading list

Week 1:      

What Comics Are and What They Are Not

Reading: McCloud Chp.1 + Duncan&Smith Chp.1

Week 2 & 3:

The History of Comic Books I: Origins and Development

         The Sunday Supplement 

Seduction of the Innocent: Culture Wars, Youth Culture and Moral Panics

         Superheroes: The Classic DC Superhero vs The Marvel Way

Reading: McCloud Chp.2&3 + Duncan&Smith Chp.2&10 + Will Eisner’s The Spirit

Week 4 & 5:

The History of Comic Books II: Maturation of the Medium

Alternative Traditions

         Underground Comix: R.Crumb

         The Autobiographical School: Art Spiegelman

Reading: Duncan&Smith Chp.3 + Maus

Week 6 & 7:

Experiments in Narrative and Narration: Deconstruction

         The Deconstruction of the Superhero

         The Graphic Novel as Literary Discourse

Reading: Watchmen & Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth

Week 8 & 9:

Production:

The Comics Book Industry

Genres

Comic Book Creators

Reception:

         Comic Book Readers: Audiences & Fan Cultures

Reading: Duncan&Smith Chp.4-5+8-9

Week 10 & 11:

Comic Book Theory & Analysis

         The Vocabulary of Comics

          Narrative and Form: Time, Space, Text and Image

Reading: McCloud Chp. 4-9 + Duncan&Smith Chp.6&7+11

Week 12:

Comparative Media Analysis: Film and Comics

         Adaptation: Scott Pilgrim vs The World & Ghost World

Week 13:

Comic-Books in Global Popular Culture

         Japanese Manga

         Underground Political Cartoons in Italy

         Punk U.S.A., DIY Comics and ‘Zines

Reading: excerpts from Mangas; Frigidaire + Persepolis

Week 14:

Digital Culture

         Reinventing the Comic Book Online

Week 15:

Presentations (n.b. These will be held during the regularly scheduled Final Exam session)