GraphicNovels CLC 2112 Western University. Instructor: Mehraneh Ebrahimi-Eshratabadi.

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1 GraphicNovels CLC 2112 Western University Instructor: Mehraneh Ebrahimi-Eshratabadi Comic Books were generally categorized as a juvenile genre, read for pleasure and as an escape from serious contemplation. However, artists have recently taken to narrate Traumatic historical topics such as the Holocaust (Maus), or retell the private and public dilemmas of young women caught between revolution and exile (Persepolis) through the Graphic Novel genre. As the eye oscillates between images and words, separated by the emptiness of gutters, the imagination flourishes to link the disparate frames. The audience participate interactively in filling out the narrative left blank and fragmented. The graphic novel here becomes a hybrid of texts and images that tells of personal as well as historical incidents. Does the genre have the capacity to speak of such grave matters such as genocide, war, and exile in its shorthand style? Is it ethically appropriate? These are among the questions that will be posed through the course after reading a few texts on Trauma theory and closely reading/looking at graphic novels. We will study and apply trauma theory and comics theory, talk about autobiography and world history, analyze pictures as well as texts, and possibly create our own comic books. Grade Breakdown Participation: 10% Mini response papers: 35% Midterm Essay: 10 % Presentation: 10% Final Essay: 35%

2 Active Participation in class and tutorial: Includes coming to class with reading materials, Paying attention to the instructor/ta, or peers, participate actively in group discussions. 10 mini response papers due every tutorial: Every reading material requires one focus question and your tentative answer to that question. Midterm Essay Minimum five page MLA style essays due after the reading break. Engage critically with a reading and take note of the theory studied. Presentation Students can present in groups or individually. Presentation should be focused on a few main critical ideas. They do not have to be too inclusive of all topics related to a text. Instead, try to teach your peers important lessons about the week s reading. Aim at engaging the audience, asking questions that spark curiousity and trying to answer them as a class. Final Essay Between 7 to 10 pages of MLA styled critical reflection on one or a combination of texts. You may use ideas from your mini essays. You can elaborate on the questions that you have harbored through the term. Will be thoroughly explained. Texts: Art Spiegelman, Maus I and Maus II or The Complete Maus Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis as well as the film Joe Sacco, Palestine Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Secondary Sources: Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics PDF available on OWL: LaCapra on Trauma. Excerpts from D. LaCapra,Writing History, Writing Trauma (2001) Charles Hirschkind and Saba Mahmood, Feminism, the Taliban, and the Politics of Counter- Insurgency (2002) Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? (2002) Marianne Hirsch, Editor s Column: Collateral Damage. (2004) Naghibi, Nima & Andrew O Malley. Estranging the familiar: East and West in Satrapi s Persepolis 2005

3 Week Break Down (preliminary): Week 1 Jan 5 Week 2- Jan 12 Week 3 -Jan 19 Week 4 -Jan 26 Week 5 -Feb 2 Week 6 -Feb 9 Introduction Maus 1 (136 pages of comics) First 23 pages of Undertsanding Comics Marianne Hirsch Collateral Damage Maus2 (159 pages) Chapter 2 of Understanding Comics 1. Lawrence Langer, Deep Memory from Holocaust Testimonies (1991) (2 sections; read both) Persepolis1 Chapter 3 of Understanding Comics Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? (2002) Persepolis2 Chapter 4 of Understanding Comics LaCapra on Trauma. Excerpts from D. LaCapra,Writing History, Writing Trauma (2001) Draft of Essay due in Tutorial Persepolis-The movie In class Chapter 5 of Understanding Comics Family day Feb 16- no class Week 8 Feb 23 Week 9 -March 2 Week 10 -March 9 Mid Term Essays Due Chapter 6 of Understanding Comics Fun Home 1 st Half Chapter 7 of Understanding Comics Fun Home 2 nd Half Chapter 8 & 9 of Understanding Comics

4 Week 11 March 9 Palestine 1 st half Charleschkind and Saba Mahmood, Feminism, the Taliban, and the Politics of Counter-Insurgency (2002) Week 12 -March16 Palestine 2 nd Half Writing Workshop Drafts of Final Essay Due in Tutorial A Bit on Comic Theory: Comic books are what novels used to be -- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal -- and if the highbrows are right, they're a form perfectly suited to our dumbeddown culture and collective attention deficit. Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability right now. In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels (McGrath, Charles. Not Funnies. New York Times Magazine 11 July 2004.) The much quoted New York Times Magazine article then goes on to mention that: to master the skill of looking carefully and reading along requires even more concentration than skimming a book quickly. I argue that graphic memoirs as a contemporary form of sequential art loom as one of the most appropriate media for re-imagining an Other(enemy) that can be identified as human, as a kin. In our age of occulcentricism and terror, many factors contribute to the recent widespread appeal of graphic memoirs for recounting traumatic historical moments from a refreshingly playful and subversive perspective. These include: o The contingency of the visual and the verbal planes foster a bi-ocularity [double-vision] (Hirsch) that constantly fluctuates the attention from the center to the margins, allowing for multiple readings, perspectives and speakers at once. o Graphic Memoirs defamiliarize, estrange, and refamiliarize us with the grave event through their cartoon avatars. The abstraction of the faces of these avatars allow for identification on an intimate, personal level. The more abstract the face, the easier the identification (McCloud). o Their scattered frames parallel the fragmentary nature of human memory after an encounter o with the Real, with trauma, or with loss. Their contemplative aporetic (Naghibi) pauses between the panels invite audience interpretation and demand an interactive personal closures (McCloud). o Images have an inherent, excessive expressivity to them (qtd from Siebers in Hirsh 1211). Images leave a direct imprint on the sense memory, the memory residing in the body of survivors (ibid). Words can be put into the service of sense memory, but vision has a very different relationship to affective experience, experience which whilst it cannot be spoken as it is felt, may register visually. The eye can often functions a mute witness through which events register as eidetic memory images imprinted with sensation (Jill Bennett Qtd in Hirsch ). With their direct affective dimension, images are potent vehicles for transmitting visceral sensations of pain or pleasure of others. Sequential images, in turn, form an interrupted staccato narrative that moves with the drive of reader s imagination. However, it is interesting to note that the inherent vigor, violence, and accessibility in images make them a suitable vehicle in the service of the elite in power as well: the church, the state and the police. Although images have been used an abused by power, I argue that as

5 property of the people, public sequential images can never be fully appropriated. The relations between images and violence, between the shot of the photographer and the sniper will be discussed. The apparent cohesion between the word, the image and the silence cannot be forced upon the hybrid form, but is co-laborated between the reader and the hybrid text. Plagiarism Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea or a passage of a text from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate, and by proper referencing such as footnotes and citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). The University of Western Ontario uses plagiarism-checking software. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form for plagiarism checking. Absenteeism Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams, participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic Counseling office of their home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic accommodation cannot be granted by the instructor or department. UWO s Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness ( Downloadable Student Medical Certificate (SMC): under the Medical Documentation heading Note that, as will be used extensively for communication with the students, you should make sure your UWO account is in order. Enjoy the Course!