So, what are graphic novels...? Since its invention, the term has been controversial among scholars and artists. Politics, history, autobiography, religion, medicine, superheroes, horror and literary adaptations are only some of the topics graphic novels have addressed. Indeed, today graphic novels are considered by many to be the most flourishing form of contemporary comics and to epitomize the most popular type of visual culture. This course is intended to provide an overview of the graphic novel’s evolution, exploring its various subgenres and diversity of styles (e.g. silent comics). We will study the specific circumstances that led to its development (e.g. underground comix, ideologies, and publishing arrangements) and examine a broad range of Anglophone graphic narratives (such as Maus, Persepolis, and Logicomix). The course’s objectives are therefore manifold: you will familiarize yourself with the graphic novels’ cultural and historical contexts, learn about various interpretative concepts, themes, and theories of graphic narration, and experience the most important historical moments of the twentieth and twenty-first century as they are depicted in words and images.
- Dozent/in: Ioanna Papaki