Teaching the Graphic Novel

by Stephen Ely Tabachnick (Editor)

Graphic novels are now appearing in a great variety of composition, literature, drama, popular culture, travel, art, translation. The thirty-four essays in this volume explore issues that the new art form has posed for teachers at the university level. Among the subjects addressed are
•        terminology ( graphic narrative vs. sequential art , comics vs. comix )
•        the three outstanding comics-producing cultures the American, the Japanese (manga), and the Franco-Belgian (the bande dessinée)
•        the differences between the techniques of graphic narrative and prose narrative,and between the reading patterns for each
•        the connections between the graphic novel and film
•        the lives of the new genre's practitioners (e.g., Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar)
•        women's contributions to the field (e.g., Lynda Barry)
•        how the graphic novel has been used to probe difficult moments in history (the Holocaust, 9/11), deal with social and racial injustice, and voice political satire
•        postmodernism in the graphic novel (e.g., in the work of Chris Ware)
•        how the American superhero developed in the Depression and World War II
•        comix and the 1960s counterculture
•        the challenges of teaching graphic novels that contain violence and sexual content

The volume concludes with a selected bibliography of the graphic novel and sequential art.

Genres: Graphic Novels

361 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains tons of helpful articles about teaching the graphic novel. There are articles about how to teach specific graphic novels, various ways to teach the genre as a whole, and helping students appreciate both the art and the text on the page and how those work together to create the narrative.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Some very useful chapters, but also maybe a book that tries too hard to be everything to all people. It is called "Teaching the GN" but chapters address many other kinds of comics besides GNs. This is probably indicative of institutional pressure from the MLA and from the academy in general.

[Priscilla Riggle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea what I was doing the first time I taught a graphic novel (actually a memoir--David Small's Stitches, which I glowingly review elsewhere). Amazon led me to Tabachnick's collection of essays, and I'm so glad they did. Especially useful is the coverage of really practical topics, including: how newbies to the graphic novel format need guidance on the reading process; how to read graphic novel frames; how readers of graphic novels must actively fill in what is not on the page, even more so that readers of word-only texts. But the best part of the book for me were the creative exercises in the chapter on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching comics. I adapted these activities to my YA Lit class and students had fun (I think) and learned A LOT from doing them (I didn't grade students' artistic efforts other than for completion, so they felt free to take risks). If you include graphic novels on your syllabus, you need to read this book.

[Hannah]

Meh. Not exactly earth shaking.

[Mike Horne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting articles. Not really a primer on the Graphic Novel or even literary analysis of graphic novel. I think some of these professors are reaching a bit.