Calendar

Part I :: Early Years

Tuesday, September 1

  • The Comic Book Code

Thursday, September 3

  • Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, chapters 1-2

Part II :: 1986

Tuesday, September 8

  • Frank Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, parts 1-2
  • Understanding Comics, chapters 3-4
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); No Task (Group 3); Searchers (Group 4); Notes (Group 5)

Thursday, September 10

  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, parts 3-4
  • Understanding Comics, chapter 5

Tuesday, September 15

  • Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen, chapters 1-3
  • Understanding Comics, chapters 8-9
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); No Task (Group 4); Searchers (Group 5); Notes (Group 1)

Thursday, September 17

  • Watchmen, chapters 4-6

Tuesday, September 22

  • Watchmen, chapter 7-9
  • Fall for the Book Guest Speaker: Adam Besenyodi, author of Deus ex Comica, Grand Tier III of the Center for Performing Arts
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); No Task (Group 5); Searchers (Group 1); Notes (Group 2)

Thursday, September 24

  • Watchmen, chapters 10-12
  • Rosen, Elizabeth. “What’s That You Smell Of?’ Twenty Years of Watchmen Nostalgia.” Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 35.98 (2006): 85-98. (Blackboard)

Tuesday, September 29

  • Art Spiegelman, Maus, Part 1, pages 1-94
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 5); No Task (Group 1); Searchers (Group 2); Notes (Group 3)

Thursday, October 1

  • Maus, Part 1, pages 95-159

Tuesday, October 6

  • Maus, Part 2, pages 1-100
  • Chute, Hillary. “’The Shadow of a Past Time’: History and Graphic Representation in Maus.” Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal 52.2 (2006): 199-230. (e-journal)
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 5); Respondents (Group 1); No Task (Group 2); Searchers (Group 3); Notes (Group 4)

Thursday, October 8

  • Maus, Part 2, pages 101-136
  • Orbán, Katalin. “Trauma and Visuality: Art Spiegelman’s Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers.” Representations 97.1 (2007): 57-89. (e-journal)

Part III :: Rethinking Comics

Tuesday, October 13

  • Monday-Tuesday Switch Day: No Class
  • Begin reading Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
  • No Weekly Roles This Week

Thursday, October 15

  • Jimmy Corrigan

Tuesday, October 20

  • Jimmy Corrigan
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); No Task (Group 3); Searchers (Group 4); Notes (Group 5)

Thursday, October 22

  • Jimmy Corrigan

Part Iv :: migration and assimilation

Tuesday, October 27

  • Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); No Task (Group 4); Searchers (Group 5); Notes (Group 1)

Thursday, October 29

  • American Born Chinese

Tuesday, November 3

  • Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis, pages 1-93
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); No Task (Group 5); Searchers (Group 1); Notes (Group 2)

Thursday, November 5

  • Persepolis, pages 93-188
  • Chute, Hilary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 36.1-2 (2008): 92-110. (e-journal)

Tuesday, November 10

  • Persepolis, pages 189-275
  • Whitlock, Gillian. “Autographics: The Seeing “I” of the Comics.” Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (2006): 965-979. (e-journal)
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 5); No Task (Group 1); Searchers (Group 2); Notes (Group 3)

Thursday, November 12

  • Persepolis, pages 276-341

Part V :: Darkness and Delirium

Tuesday, November 17

  • Wildred Santiago, In My Darkest Hour
  • Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 5); Respondents (Group 1); No Task (Group 2); Searchers (Group 3); Notes (Group 4)

Thursday, November 19

  • Junji Ito, Uzumaki

Tuesday, November 24

  • Final Project Prospectus Due

Thursday, November 26

  • Thanksgiving

PART Vi :: The literary graphic novel

Tuesday, December 1

Thursday, December 3

  • Fun Home, chapters 4-5
  • Ariela Freedman. “Drawing on Modernism in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.” Journal of Modern Literature 32.4 (2009): 125-140. (e-journal)

Tuesday, December 8

  • Fun Home, chapters 6-7
  • Chute, Hillary L., and Alison Bechdel. “An Interview with Alison Bechdel.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (2006): 1004-1013. (e-journal)

Thursday, December 10

  • The Future of Graphic Narrative

Tuesday, December 15

  • Final Paper Due

Rosen, Elizabeth. “What’s That You Smell Of?’ Twenty Years of Watchmen Nostalgia.” Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 35.98 (2006): 85-98. 15 May 2009 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com.mutex.gmu.edu/itw/infomark/192/215/90714844w6/purl=rc1_MLA_0_N2812269870&dyn=3!xrn_5_0_N2812269870?sw_aep=olr_wad>