ENG 216 Comic Books as Literature
Lecture Hours: 4
Credits: 4
Explores the graphic novel/comic book as a literary art form by examining and analyzing literary techniques, cultural context, history, and the development of the genre. Encourages students to use contemporary and traditional forms of literary analysis and critical thinking to better understand the text and its influence on pop culture.
Prerequisite: Placement into WR 121Z ; or WR 115 or higher, with a grade of C or better; or consent of instructor.
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Discuss the graphic novel as an art form/literary work.
- Express the importance of the graphic novel on modern film/television.
- Discuss the graphic novel as a cultural artifact or a product of the socio-economic and cultural environment within which it was created.
- Apply the terminology of literary criticism to the graphic novel/comic book.
- Write clear, focused, coherent essays about the graphic novel/comic book for an academic audience using Standard English conventions of grammar and style.
- Identify the literary devices and stylistic and rhetorical choices used by writers in order to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the selections.
Statewide General Education Outcomes:
- Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life.
- Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues.
Content Outline
- A Brief History of Sequential Art
- From cave painting to the bat cave
- Will Eisner influence
- The birth of Marvel and DC
- Application of Literary Terminology and Techniques
- Point of view
- Voice
- Narrative
- Characterization
- Irony
- Gender and difference
- Reading Graphic Novels Critically and Analytically
- New historicism
- Feminism and gender theory
- Psychoanalytic criticism
- Marxism
- Graphic Novels/Comic Books as Cultural Artifacts
- As tools for social change
- As chronicles of survivor stories
- As modern mythologies/heroes
- As Noir
- Writing About the Graphic Novel/Comic Book for an Academic Audience
- Using secondary sources
- Adding to the ongoing literary conversation
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