Studying Comics and Graphic Novels E-Book

Karin Kukkonen

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 288

Beschreibung

This introduction to Studying Comics and Graphic Novels is a structured guide to a popular topic. It deploys new cognitive methods of textual analysis and features activities and exercises throughout. * Deploys novel cognitive approaches to analyze the importance of psychological and physical aspects of reader experience * Carefully structured to build a sequenced, rounded introduction to the subject * Includes study activities, writing exercises, and essay topics throughout * Dedicated chapters cover popular sub-genres such as autobiography and literary adaptation

Leseprobe

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: How to Use This Book

What This Book Holds

Working Definitions

Recommended Reading

References

1 What’s in a Page: Close-Reading Comics

Cognitive Processes and Critical Terms

Navigating the Comics Page

Entering the Storyworld and Meeting its Participants

Note

Recommended Reading

References

Comics Discussed

2 The Way Comics Tell it: Narration and Narrators1

Showing and Telling

Story, Discourse, and Plot

The Narrator

Narration, Focalization, and Point of View

Narrative as Meaning-Making

Note

Recommended Reading

References

Comics Discussed

3 Narrating Minds and Bodies: Autobiographical Comics

Style and Subjectivity

Autographic Agents

Embodiment

Self-Reflexivity

Time, Story, and History

Alternative Agendas and Authenticity

Note

Recommended Reading

References

Comics Discussed

4 Novels and Graphic Novels: Adaptations

Transporting Stories

Media Affordances and Adaptation Strategies

Fidelity in Adaptation

Literary Complexity

The Page Revisited

Recommended Reading

References

Comics Discussed

5 Comics and Their History

The Beginnings of Comics History

Precursors in Emergent Mass Culture

Newspaper Comics (1900s–1930s)

The Comic Book (1930–54)

Comics Censorship (1954)

Comics as Popular Culture

Breaking the Code 1: Pop Art and Underground Comix

Breaking the Code 2: The British Invasion

Notes

Recommended Reading

References

Comics Discussed

6 The Study and Criticism of Comics

Resources for Studying Comics

Critical Approaches to Comics

Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading

References

How to Write Your Essay on Comics

Recommended Reading

Conclusion

Comics as Literature

References

Appendix: More Comics and Graphic Novels to Read

Glossary

Index

This edition first published 2013© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kukkonen, Karin, 1980–Studying comics and graphic novels / Karin Kukkonen.pages cmIncludes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-49993-1 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-49992-4 (pbk.) 1. Comic books, strips, etc.–History and criticism. 2. Graphic novels–History and criticism. I. Title.PN6710.K84 2014741.5′9–dc23

2013015566

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image © Pavel Tretera / ShuttlestockCover design by Design Delux

Acknowledgments

Studying Comics and Graphic Novels has been a long-term project and learning process for me. First of all, my gratitude goes to my students at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (Germany) and Tampere University (Finland) who shared their enthusiasm, thoughts and comics knowledge with me. The comments of friends and colleagues on these chapters have improved the book beyond what I could have done on my own. In particular, I would like to thank those who read through different parts of the book in its final state: Ann Miller, Marco Caracciolo, Terence Cave, Jared Gardner, Laurence Grove, Sabine Müller, Roger Sabin and Emily Troscianko, as well as the publisher’s anonymous readers. Whatever flaws remain are my own.

The Balzan Interdisciplinary Seminar “Literature as an Object of Knowledge” at St. John’s College, Oxford, has been a supportive and inspiring environment for bringing this book to its conclusion. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Balzan Seminar and of the English Department of the University of Oxford, and I sincerely thank the copyright holders who gave me permission to reproduce their images on these pages. Finally, my gratitude goes to Emma Bennett who believed in the project from the start and to Wiley Blackwell who saw the volume through production.DC materials appear courtesy of DC Comics: Desolation Jones © Warren Ellis and J.H. Williams III. Used with Permission of DC Comics; V for Vendetta. © DC Comics. Used with Permission; Sandman Vol.1: Preludes and Nocturnes. © DC Comics. Used with Permission; From Sandman Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections. © DC Comics. Used with Permission; Watchmen © DC Comics. Used with Permission; Promethea, Book 3 © DC Comics. Used with Permission.Sinfest © 2012 Tatsuya Ishida. Laocoön. Source: Marie-Lan Nguyen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg Shock Suspenstories. Source: EC logoTM and image © Wm. M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Fun Home. Source: from FUN HOME: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. © 2006 by Alison Bechdel. Used by Permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Blankets. Source: © Craig Thompson. Used with Permission from Top Shelf Productions. Wuthering Heights in the Classics Illustrated Version. Source: Copyright © 2012 by First Classics, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Jack Lake Productions Inc. Wuthering Heights in R. Sikoryak’s Version. Source: from Masterpiece Comics (Drawn and Quarterly 2009) Copyright 2009 R. Sikoryak. The Heights! Source: From Masterpiece Comics (Drawn and Quarterly 2009) Copyright 2009 R. Sikoryak. Sense and Sensibility. Source: from Sense and Sensibilities 2010. TM and © 2013 Marvel and Subs. Martin Rowson’s Tristram Shandy. Source: © Martin Rowson. Sir Henry Unton. Source: NPG 710. Sir Henry Unton by Unknown artist. Oil on panel, circa 1596. © National Portrait Gallery, London. From Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis. Source: by Permission of University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections. Crime Suspenstories (1954). Source: EC logoTM and image © Wm. M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. 2012. All rights reserved.

Introduction: How to Use This Book

This book is a basic introduction to the study of COMICS and GRAPHIC NOVELs. It is designed to provide you with all the knowledge you need for studying and analyzing comics on a university course. It explores key issues in comics studies: how the MEDIUM tells its stories, how authors express their experience through them, what novels and graphic novels have in common and where they differ, as well as the history of comics as POPULAR CULTURE. The book outlines different critical approaches to comics, and gives you reading suggestions and ­exercises to practice comics analysis at the end of each chapter.

This book is for you, the reader of comics. It suggests an explanation for how we read comics and their NARRATIVEs, how we relate to authors and NARRATORs and, perhaps, gives you a sense of how comics engage your mind. You might read this book in a class on comics and be interested in the reading suggestions and the exercises, or the instructions on how to write an essay on comics ­analysis; or you might be simply curious about what other people have to say and write about comics and graphic novels. Welcome. This section gives an overview of what you might expect in Studying Comics and Graphic Novels and sets out some basic definitions, but please feel free to skip ahead to any other chapter.