ENG 282 Introduction to Comics-Graphic Novels

This course introduces students to the academic study of comics and graphic novels, focusing on these forms as literary productions, asking questions about how and why these forms are written and read. Students will encounter a variety of comics and graphic novel forms with an international, historical, and critical perspective on the art of editorial cartoons, comics, comic books, and graphic novels and how they communicate, inform, and emotionally engage audiences.

Credits

4

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Identify different genres and subgenres of comics and graphic novels. Recognize conventions of the form
2. Recognize graphic genres' influence on popular culture by identifying analogous visual/verbal configurations to course texts
3. Situate course texts within their cultural, political, and historical contexts
4. Recognize and relate how visual/verbal representation can communicate the struggles
5. Recognize, differentiate and relate the various forms of graphic storytelling and comics art and interpret the layers of meaning produced by visual/verbal elements; understand and relate the historical and cultural contexts that create or influence graphic and comic art forms
6. Describe, compare, and classify different forms of graphic storytelling encountered in the class and relate their aesthetic, cultural, or historical meaning
7. Perform formal analyses of a narrative medium that combines visual and verbal elements in a unique way
8. Analyze how the visual and verbal elements combine to produce complex meaning that is distinct from that produced in genres that use words only