Calendar

PART I Telling Stories with Pictures

Tuesday, January 25

• Introduction to Graphic Narratives

Thursday, January 27

• Chapters 3 and 4 from Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud (Blackboard)

Tuesday, February 1

• Gods’ Man by Lynd Ward
• Chapter 10 from The Pleasures of Children’s Literature by Perry Nodelman. New York: Longman, 1991. (Blackboard)
• Chapter 5 from Understanding Comics (Blackboard)
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); No Task (Group 3); Searchers (Group 4); Weekly Roundup (Group 5); No Task (Group 6)

Thursday, February 3

• Gods’ Man

PART II Heroes, Superheroes, and Villains

Tuesday, February 8

• The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, parts 1 and 2
• “Batman: Commodity as Myth” by Bill Boichel, from The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media. Ed. Roberta E. Pearson & William Uricchio. New York: Routledge, 1991. 4-17. (Blackboard)
• Chapter 5 from Comics: History, Form, and Culture by Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith (Blackboard)
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); No Task (Group 4); Searchers (Group 5); Weekly Roundup (Group 6); No Task (Group 1)

Thursday, February 10

• The Dark Knight Returns, parts 3 and 4
• “Batman and the Twilight of the Idols: An Interview with Frank Miller” conducted by Christopher Sharrett, from The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media. Ed. Roberta E. Pearson & William Uricchio. New York: Routledge, 1991. 33-46. (Blackboard)

Tuesday, February 15

• Nat Turner by Kyle Baker
• The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, by Thomas R. Gray. VA. Baltimore, 1831. Documenting the American South. <http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/menu.html>
• “Text and Context to The Confessions of Nat Turner” by Kenneth S. Greenburg, from The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents. Boston, Bedford, 1996. 1-35. (Blackboard)
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); No Task (Group 5); Searchers (Group 6); Weekly Roundup (Group 1); No Task (Group 2)

Thursday, February 17

• Nat Turner
• A Guide to a Speech and Photographs Relating to Nat Turner’s Insurrection. Special Collections. University of Virginia, 2007. <http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/uva-sc/viu01760.document>

Tuesday, February 22

• We3 by Grant Morrison
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 5); No Task (Group 6); Searchers (Group 1); Weekly Roundup (Group 2); No Task (Group 3)

Thursday, February 24

• We3
• Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (Blackboard)

PART III Memory and Trauma

Tuesday, March 1

• Maus: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman, pages 1-94
• “The Black Hole of Trauma” by Bessel A. Van der Kolk and Alexander C. McFarlane, from Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. Ed. Lars Weisaeth, Bessel A. van der Kolk, & Alexander C. McFarlane. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. 3-23. (Blackboard)
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 5); Respondents (Group 6); No Task (Group 1); Searchers (Group 2); Weekly Roundup (Group 3); No Task (Group 4)

Thursday, March 3

• Maus: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman, pages 95-159
• “Of Mice and Memory” by Joshua Brown, in Oral History Review 16.1 (1988): 91-109. (e-journal)

Tuesday, March 8

• Maus: Here My Troubles Began by Art Speigelman, pages 1-100
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 6); Respondents (Group 1); No Task (Group 2); Searchers (Group 3); Weekly Roundup (Group 4); No Task (Group 5)

Thursday, March 10

• Maus: Here My Troubles Began by Art Speigelman, pages 101-136
• “’The Shadow of a Past Time’: History and Graphic Representation in Maus” by Hillary Chute, in Twentieth Century Literature 52.2 (2006): 199-230. (e-journal)

Tuesday, March 15 & Thursday, March 17

• Spring Break

Tuesday, March 22

• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, chapters 1-4
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 1); Respondents (Group 2); No Task (Group 3); Searchers (Group 4); Weekly Roundup (Group 5); No Task (Group 6)

Thursday, March 24

• Fun Home, chapter 5-7
• “Drawing on Modernism in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home” by Ariela Freedman, in Journal of Modern Literature 32.4 (2009): 125-140. (e-journal)
• “An Interview with Alison Bechdel” conducted by Hillary Chute, in MFS Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (2006): 1004-1013. (e-journal)

PART IV Fractured Lives

Tuesday, March 29

• Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 2); Respondents (Group 3); No Task (Group 4); Searchers (Group 5); Weekly Roundup (Group 6); No Task (Group 1)

Thursday, March 31

• Exit Wounds
• Tracing Project Due

Tuesday, April 5

• Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 3); Respondents (Group 4); No Task (Group 5); Searchers (Group 6); Weekly Roundup (Group 1); No Task (Group 2)

Thursday, April 7

• Swallow Me Whole

Tuesday, April 12

• Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuccheli
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 4); Respondents (Group 5); No Task (Group 6); Searchers (Group 1); Weekly Roundup (Group 2); No Task (Group 3)

Thursday, April 14

• Asterios Polyp

PART V Ongoing Series

Tuesday, April 19

• The Unwritten by Mike Carey, volume 1
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 5); Respondents (Group 6); No Task (Group 1); Searchers (Group 2); Weekly Roundup (Group 3); No Task (Group 4)

Thursday, April 21

• The Unwritten, volume 2

Tuesday, April 26

• Bayou by Justin Love, issues 1-5
• Weekly Roles: First Readers (Group 6); Respondents (Group 1); No Task (Group 2); Searchers (Group 3); Weekly Roundup (Group 4); No Task (Group 5)

Thursday, April 28

• Bayou, issues 6-10

Tuesday, May 3

• Webcomics and experiments in design and narrative

Thursday, May 5

• Webcomics and experiments in design and narrative

Thursday, May 12

• Final Project Due