Seminar in Cultural Studies: From Trashy to Literary Heterotopias: A History of the Form and Function of Comics

 

Class will meet on Mondays, 3:15 to 5:45 pm at Sakamaki B211

 

This course explores the metamorphosis of comics from a mass-produced commodity to a precious collector’s item. The field of comics studies—wittingly or unwittingly—reproduces the dominant exclusionary attitudes toward “trashy” pop-culture, while simultaneously using the distinctions between high and mass art to recycle the form. The shift from comics to graphic novels, for example, represses comics’ juvenile delinquency, and its historical association with the lower passions; instead it focuses exclusively on graphic novels’ elevated status as literary heterotopias.

In this course, we will study the multiple histories of the form, as it emerged almost simultaneously in Europe, the US, and Japan. We will uncover the constitutive role of censorship in developing the medium’s language—first, the censorship implicit in the mass-culture market for children and youth, which acted as a potential creative trigger for covert pornography and violence, and then the more intractable problem of internalized and unconscious self-censorship stemming from the endlessly reproduced moral panic surrounding the consumption patterns of young people. How did this moral panic undermine the “beastly” or alien quality of the comic form which began as a means to evade the adult-eye, concealing its subversiveness in plain sight, as it were?

The collaborative networks of artists, publishers, distributors, editors, fan communities, comic-con events, nevertheless allow comics to retain its anti-art and trashy character; side by side we find elements of: slapstick, horror, fantasy, disability, illness, sci-fi, autobiography, and porn, not to speak of the myriad subgenres and unnamable affects associated with manga. We will also do a deep-dive through the experimental language and creative possibilities of the webtoons/manhwa industry of the East Asian market.

 

You will gain a deep understanding of the historical rhetoric of comics in conjunction with methodologies of visual culture and psychoanalysis;

You will demonstrate an ability to map, historicize, and contextualize these specialized areas;

You will be able to identify and describe key concepts in medium and genre based analysis, which is not always identical with conventional literary methodologies;

You will be able to frame and articulate the ethical challenges posed by popular media as they pertain to the broader field of aesthetics and politics.

You will develop the ability to place your own scholarly work within broader critical conversations, and to contribute to these conversations by conducting independent research;

You will gain experience delivering concise, informed, focused, and thought-provoking presentations both oral and written, to peers in the field;

 

Assignments:

Oral Presentations (20 points); Individually-Led Critical Question and Response to Presentations  (5 points); Short Weekly Responses (20 points); Short Essay on a Semantic Unit from a Comic Book/Graphic Novel  (15 points); Two drafts of Proposal Abstract (15 points); Final Research-Based Argumentative Essay (20 points); End of the Course Workshop (BYOC or Bring your own comic) exploring fan-aesthetics (5 points)

Readings:

Japanese Manga

Hokusai (1814-78). The Hokusai Manga (excerpts)

Yoshiharu Tsuge (1966; 2020). The Swamp.

Tezuka Osamu (1970-71; 2006). Ode to Kirihito. (excerpts)

Tatsumi Yoshihiro (1970; 2006). Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Other Stories (excerpts)

Shirato Sanpei (1964-1971). Ninja Martial Arts Chronicle: Legend of Kagemaru (excerpts)

Hagio Moto (1971-2001; 2010).  A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. (excerpts)

Rumiko Takahashi (1987-1996). Ranma ½. (excerpts)

Gengoroh Tagame (2007). Do you remember the South Island’s POW camp? Vols. 1 and 2 (excerpts)

Junji Ito (2008), Museum of Terror (excerpts)

American and European Graphic Novels

Art Speigelman (1980). Maus I & II

Joe Sacco (1993). Palestine.

Robert Crumb. Zap comix

Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (1999). From Hell

Marjane Satrapi (2000). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

David B. (2005). Epileptic

Alison Bechdel (2006). Fun Home

Mariko Tamaki (2014). This One Summer

Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore (2019). BTTM FDRS.

Comic Series

Rodolphe Töpffer. 2007. “Monsieur Jabot” in David Kunzle ed. Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer.

Hergé. 1945. Tintin in America.

Uderzo, A. and R. Goscinny. 1966. Asterix in Britain.

Will Eisner. 1978. A Contract with God. (excerpts)

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 1987. The Best of Marvel Comics (excerpts)

Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello. 1986. Dark Knight Returns

Neil Gaiman. 1995. Sandman: World’s End (excerpts)