Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course explores those comics and graphic novels that transcend the aging assumption that "books with pictures are for kids." Though graphic novels can often be described as more "accessible" than traditional novels, this doesn't mean they are necessarily less complex. When an author effectively combines images with a written narrative--and doesn't resort to mere illustration-- the result is a multi-layered work that illuminates the reader's imagination from multiple angles. Learning to describe how and why a visual story captures our hearts and minds enhances our ability to immerse ourselves into its world.

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Read analytically to identify a work’s use of aesthetic and rhetorical strategies.
2. Compare and contrast the ways traditional literary elements (such as symbol, tone, structure, point of view...) operate when deployed in a graphic novel.
3. Identify the cultural, political, and/or artistic inferences and assumptions that inform a reader’s perception of a story.
4. Write clear, focused, coherent essays that explicate for an academic audience the complexity of comics and graphic novels, using standard English conventions of grammar and style.

-To remember (or perhaps learn for the first time) the pure joy of immersive reading.

-To learn to read with a relaxed yet intentional approach.

-To move past the fear that analyzing a work of art will squelch its magic.

Class meetings might consist of a variety of approaches, such as:

Mini-lectures

Class discussions

In-class analysis of specific panels

Individual reading assignments

Reading journal

Think-Pair-Share

Guest lectures

Assessment strategies might consist of a variety of approaches, such as:

Reading journals

Essays 

Individual and/or group presentations

Creative writing assignments

THEMES

• Setting

• Plot
• Character
• Point of view
• Narrative styles
• Symbolism
• Imagery
• Interdependence
• Gender
• Race
• Political and social history

-Archetype

-Dialogue

-Structure

 
COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS
• Analysis 
• Synthesis
• Understand various texts through social, political, artistic, and other contexts
• Write clearly about literary elements ( theme, structure, tone, etc.) found in a work

• Articulate close readings of a dense work

• Speak and listen reflectively