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

• Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, chapter 1-3
• Supplemental Course Evaluation Questions

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