Syllabus
The purpose of this course is to offer an insight and a critical traversal of the Graphic Novel, one of the most acclaimed storytelling media of our times. Graphic novel has made its way in the academic environments due to its achieved popularity, its practices of elevation to literary forms (novelization), and its data of production, distribution and reading across the world. The clear, broad definition of comics given by Scott McCloud in his pioneering work Understanding comics as «Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence» is still valid and universal, although since the 90s there has been a growing need for an understanding of the one-shot form of graphic novel and its peculiarities.
During the first part of the course, we will start with the historical overview and critical commentaries by Baetens and Frey to approach the developments and the changes undergone by the US comics and the European Bande Dessinée, tracing a porous map of influences until reaching present times. With the tools provided by narratologists, semiotics, and critics from the comic’s field, we will formerly define what do we commonly mean with the expression Graphic novel; latterly, we will discuss the forms of reading and theorizing it.
Through the second part of the course, we will adopt a close reading approach to analyze some masterpieces from XX and XXI century. In the first place, we will give an overview to the US and European industry, discussing the themes and the forms that have prevailed and those which constitute a minor (but wealthy) space. Secondly, we will narrow our analysis down to Italian, French, Spanish and Anglo-Saxons case studies, considering popular works of internationally acclaimed artists like Spiegelman, Buzzati, Satrapi, Gipi, Zerocalcare, Paco Roca, Bechdel, Mazzucchelli, which have gained success of audience and critics.
- Session I
A brief historical introduction: verbo-visuality through times.
- Session II
The circumstances of a success: the US comics and the Bande Dessinée.
- Session III
Transitional elements: the Underground premises and the Graphic Novel configuration.
- Session IV
Graphic Novel, mode d’emploi : definitions and theories.
- Session V
How to read a (and what to do with) a Graphic Novel: formalist, semiotic, narratological approaches.
- Session VI
Out of time masterpieces: Dino Buzzati’s Poem Strip (Poema a fumetti) and Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
- Session VII
Contemporary graphic novels: themes, tendencies, influences.
- Session VIII
Italian pioneering authors I: Gipi’s Land of the Sons (La terra dei Figli).
- Session IX
Italian pioneering authors II: Zerocalcare’s The Armadillo prophecy.
- Session X
A graphic novel from Spain: Paco Roca’s Wrinkles.
- Session XI
Autobiographical voices I: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.
- Session XII
Autobiographical voices II: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
- Session XIII
Mechanisms of transformation: Paul Auster’s and Davide Mazzucchelli’s City of Glass. Conclusions.
Annotation
The present course on reading and understanding the graphic novel is conceived as to give students the opportunity of learning about one of the fastest growing literary phenomena of the past decades. The aim of the lectures is firstly to provide the attendants with a socio-historical context to be able to understand the evolution and the changes of the medium from its direct predecessor, the comic strip; secondly, in a seminar approach, to go through critical and theoretical tools to analyze texts from different perspectives, reinforcing theories with a pathway of close readings of European and American masterpieces.
The final aim of the course is to gain enough verbo- visual literacy as to be able to have a clear idea of concepts like styles, themes, influences, inter- and transmedia, as well as adaptation issues.