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IPP WORKSHOP SERIES | Annalina Benner: “Telling My life in Pictures: An Introduction to Graphic Memoirs”

When

Jan 30, 2025 from 02:00 to 04:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC100)

Where

SR 109

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While looking back at a long tradition and famous representatives such as Captain America (1940-present) or TinTin (1929-1986), being both entertaining and informative, as well as globally successful, comic books have often been accused of lacking seriousness and literary merit (cf. Gundermann 2007: 16-24). This started to slowly change when Will Eisner coined the term “graphic novel” with the release of A Contract with God (2006 [1978]) which was followed by the success of Art Spiegelman’s Maus (2003 [1991]) shortly after (cf. Abel & Klein 2016: 29-34; cf. Jaffe & Hurwich 2019: 20-21). These two texts not only stand as great examples for the canon of graphic novels but also share another similarity in that both tell the respective author’s family history (cf. Hallet 2012: 34-37).
To provide an overview of life writing in graphic novel format, this workshop will be split into two parts with the first serving as an introduction to the graphic novel format (cf. McCloud 1994; cf. Kelley 2010: 1-5), and the latter allowing participants to actively engage with the graphic memoirs provided. Works that can be discussed include but are not limited to graphic memoirs of various thematic foci such as Jewish lives in the USA in the aforementioned texts by Eisner and Spiegelman, LGBTQIA+ experiences in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2007 [2006]) or Grayson Lee White’s Dotson (2023), social change in John Lewis’ March (2013-2016 [2009-2015]), and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2008 [2000-2003]), or mental health issues in Debbie Tung’s Everything is Okay (2022), and Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (2023). Further, participants are warmly invited to bring their own examples for discussion. Finally, we will assess the diversity of life writing found in graphic memoirs from graphic novels to picture books.


Bibliography
Abel, Julia, and Christian Klein (2016). Comics und Graphic Novels. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. Print.
Bechdel, Alison (2007). Fun Home. A Family Tragicomic [2006]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Print.
Eisner, Will (2006). The Contract with God Trilogy. Life on Dropsie Avenue [1978]. New York: Norton. Print.
Gundermann, Christine (2007). Jenseits von Asterix. Comics im Geschichtsunterricht. Schwalbach/Ts.: Wochenschau Geschichte. Print.
Hallet, Wolfgang (2012). “AutobioGraphic Novels. Selbsterzählungen in Comic-Form analysieren und verfassen.” Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch 46: 34-38. Print.
Jaffe, Meryl, and Talia Hurwich (2019). Worth a Thousand Words. Using Graphic Novels to Teach Visual and Verbal Literacy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Print.
Kelley, Brian (2010). “Sequential Art, Graphic Novels, and Comics.” SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education 1.1: 1-24. Web. <https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=sane> (19 July 2024).
Lewis, John, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (2013-2016 [2009-2015]). March. Marietta: Top Shelf Productions. Print.
McCloud, Scott (1994). Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins. Print.
Satrapi, Marjane (2008). The Complete Persepolis [2000-2003]. London: Vintage. Print.
Spiegelman, Art (2003). Maus. A Survivor’s Tale [1991]. London: Penguin Book. Print.
Thorogood, Zoe (2023). It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth. An auto-bio-graphic novel. Portland: Image Comics. Print.
Tung, Debbie (2022). Everything Is Okay. n.p.: Andrews McMeel Publishing. Print.
White, Grayson Lee, and Stephanie Roth Sisson (2023). Dotson. My Journey Growing Up Transgender. n.p.: West Margin Press. Print.

 

To register: Winter Term 2024/25 — The Graduate Centre (uni-giessen.de)