Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities: Critical Approaches to Comics

Books | Assignments | Schedule | Policies

Professor Matthew J. Brown (contact)
Office Hours: Mondays 3-5pm, JO 4.120
Schedule an Appointment

I will be available to speak to you for several minutes before and after class each week. I will be fully engaged during class, with plenty of time for questions and discussion. I will be prompt to office hours each week, and will announce any cancellations in advance. I will answer my phone during office hours unless I am with another student. I will happily make appointments before or after class, or by the website above. Generally, I will not respond to emails or phone messages. The only reason to email me would be (1) to inform me of a genuine emergency situation before class or an assignment due date that will prevent you from being on time, (2) to remind me to do something I promised to do, such as post bonus readings, (3) or to ask brief and urgent logistical questions. If you have a burning question, I suggest first checking the syllabus, course website, and all handouts to see if the answer to your question is there.

Description

This seminar is an introduction to the critical approaches, theories, and methods of research and analysis in the arts and humanities. Serious, graduate-level research and writing in the humanities requires that we go beyond the surface-level meaning of texts, art objects, and cultural artifacts; we require critical theories and methods to provide tools for research and interpretation that allow us to move beyond that superficial level. This course surveys such critical approaches. To lend the course thematic unity, we will focus on an area of research in the arts and humanities where multi- and interdisciplinary approaches are most needed: comics studies. The interdisciplinary study of comics (comic books, comic strips, graphic novels) requires theories and methods drawn from literature, history, film studies, critical theory, communication and rhetoric, art criticism, visual analysis, and philosophy. As such it provides a valuable subject-matter for our survey. As we explore a range of such approaches, we will apply them not only to comics but to other types of texts or artifacts.

Books

Because of the nature of the medium, the texts for this course will represent a sizable cost. Comics sometimes cost more than paperbacks, and we will read a lot of them. You might also consider teaming up with a buddy and sharing the cost, swapping off comics each week. Digital is fine if that is cheaper, if you have a way to bring the device to class, and it is reasonably sized (mainly tablets and laptops), though the way the digital medium changes the way comics are read is nontrivial.

Critical sources will be on order at Off Campus Books (561 W Campbell Rd). Arrangements are being made with Zeus Comics (1334 Inwood Rd) for deeply discounted copies of the texts, and you can also often find highly discounted copies (new or used) on Amazon and similar sites.

You are encouraged to read as many of the comics sources ahead of time as possible.

Critical Sources

Required:

Recommended:

Comics

Required:

Recommended:

Assignments and Grades

  • Completion of all reading assignments.
  • Attendance and participation.
  • Application Presentation (20 minutes): applying one of the critical approaches for the week to a work of your choice (comics or not)
  • Three short papers (1000±250 words):
    1. Applying a critical approach to another comic.
    2. Applying a critical approach to a non-comic work.
    3. Applying a critical approach to an work of your choice.
      (Not necessarily in that order.)
  • A proposal for a longer research project with comprehensive bibliography (2000±500 words)

Schedule of Readings and Assignments

  1. 1/15 – Introduction to Comics Studies & Research in the Humanities
    • McCloud, Understanding Comics; Jenkins [CAC Intro]
    • Read and discuss in class: Newgarden and Karasik, “How to Read Nancy” [ER]; Adler, “How to Mark a Book” [ER]; Fine-Pawsey, “How to Mark a Comic” [ER]
    • Recommended: “Everything you wanted to know about critical theory but were afraid to ask” [CTT 1]; Groensteen, “Why are Comics Still in Search of Cultural Legitimation?” [CSR]
  2. 1/22 – The Value of Interdiscplinarity
    • McCloud; Sousanis, Unflattening; Hatfield, “Indiscipline, or, The Condition of Comics Studies” [ER]
    • Recommended: Abbott, Flatland
    • Special Guest: Pia Jakobsson, to talk about the Humanities graduate program.
  3. 1/29 – Genre Analysis & Auteur Criticism
  4. 2/5 – New Criticism and Dialogics (Bakhtin)
    • Watchmen; Versaci, “New Criticism” [ER]; Pinti, “Comics Dialogics” [ER]
    • Recommended: Wimsatt & Beardlsey “The Intentional Fallacy” [ER]; Knapp & Michaels “Against Theory” [ER]; Fried’s “Art and Objecthood” [ER] Nicholas Brown “The Work of Art in the Age of its Real Subsumption under Capital” [ER]
    • Library orientation: Meet at the Library lobby.
  5. 2/12 – Narrative Analysis & Autobiographics
    • Maus; Singer, “Time and Narrative” [CAC 4]; Kunka, “Autobiographics” [ER]
    • Recommended: Morrison, The Invisibles, Beaty, “Autobiography as Authenticity” [CSR]; Chute, “History and Graphic Representation in Maus” [CSR]
  6. 2/19 – Psychoanalytic and Ideological Criticism
    • Fun Home; Lykou, “Psychoanalytic Criticism” [ER]; Rifas, “Ideology” [CAC 16]
    • Recommended: Herge, Tintin in the Congo [ER]; Jameson The Political Unconscious; “Psychoanalytic criticism” and “Marxist criticism” [CTT 2, 3]
  7. 2/26 – Critical Theory and Postcolonialism
    • The Nightly News; McAllister & Cruz, “Critical Theory” [ER]; Dony, “Postcolonial Theory” [ER]
    • Recommended: Herge, Tintin in the Congo [ER]; Quijano, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America” [ER]; Lugones, “Toward a Decolonial Feminism” [ER]; “Postcolonial criticism” [CTT 12]
    • Special Guest: Charles Hatfield (literature)
  8. 3/5 – Feminism, Queer Theory, and Disability Studies
    • Bitch Planet; Stuller [CAC 17]; Zullo, “Queer Theory” [ER]; Quesenberry, “Disability” [ER]
    • Recommended: Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane 121 and 122 [ER]; David B., Epileptic; Hawkeye v. 4; Swafford, “Critical Ethnography” [CAC 21]; “Feminist criticism” and “Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism” [CTT 4, 10]
    • Special Guest: Sabrina Starnaman (literature)
    • Assignment: First application paper (critical approaches weeks 3-7)
  9. 3/12 – Race and Geography
    • Destroyer; Cunningham, “Critical Race Theory” [ER]; Chambliss, “Critical Geography” [ER]
    • Recommended: APB; Icon; I Am Alfonso Jones; Herge, Tintin in the Congo [ER]; “African American criticism” [CTT 11]
  10. 3/19 – Spring Break – No Class
  11. 3/26 – History and Historiography
    • Sacco; Ricca [CAC 14]; Sherif, “Historiography” [ER]
    • Recommended: Chute, “History and Graphic Representation in Maus” [CSR]; Alice in Sunderland; “The History of Comics” Part I-III [PC 1-3]; Chute, “History and Graphic Representation in Maus” [CSR]; John Tosh, The Pursuit of History – especially ch 6 [ER]
    • Special Guest: Peter Park (history and philosophy)
  12. 4/2 – Philosophy and Philosophical Aesthetics
    • Logicomix; McLaughlin [CAC 7]; Meskin & Cook, “Philosophical Aesthetics” [ER]
    • Recommended: Thomson, “Deconstructing the Superhero” [ER]
    • Special Guest: Katherine Davies (philosophy)
  13. 4/9 – Scientific Humanities
    • Marston & Peter, Wonder Woman (excerpts); Morrison & Paquette, Wonder Woman: Earth One; Brown, “Scientific Humanities” [ER]
    • Recommended: Rhodes, “Wonder Woman and Her Disciplinary Powers” [ER]
    • Special Guest: Pamela Gossin (history and literature)
    • Assignment: Second application paper (critical approaches weeks 8-13)
  14. 4/16 – Dramatistic and Cinematic Approaches
    • Akira; Lefevre, “Mise en scene and Framing” [CAC 5]; Carlson, “Dramatistic/Burkean” [ER]
    • Recommended: Lone Wolf and Cub; Hawkeye vol 2.; Petersen, “The Acoustics of Manga” [CSR]
  15. 4/23 – Visual Analyses
    • Jimmy Corrigan; Molotiu, “Abstract Form” [CAC 6]; Duncan, “Image Functions” [CAC 3]
    • Recommended: Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp; Witek, “Comics Modes” [CAC 2]; Lefevre, “The Construction of Space in Comics” [CSR]; Kannenberg, “The Comics of Chris Ware” [CSR]
    • Special Guest: Mark Rosen (art history)
  16. 4/30 – Adaptation and Transmedia Approaches
    • City of Glass; watch a film adapted from comics & sample the comic; Coughlan, “Adaptation” [ER]; Proctor, “Transmedia Storytelling” [ER]
    • Recommended: Thoreau at Walden; Crumb, The Book of Genesis; Ferstl, “Novel-Based Comics” [ER]; Persepolis (comic and film)
    • Assignment: Third application paper (critical approaches weeks 14-16)
  17. Finals Week
    • Assignment: Research Proposal

Course and Instructor Policies

Classroom expectations

You are expected to have read the assignments before class, and it would be to your benefit to also read them again after class. You are expected to bring a copy of assigned readings for each day’s class, and have them available to refer to. (If you’re sharing books with someone in class, make sure to sit with that person. If you’re having difficulty bringing the digital versions of the readings to class, please get in touch with me.) You are expected to listen respectfully to the professor and your fellow students, and participate in class discussions and activities.

Failure to abide by these expectations will result in you being asked to leave the classroom and being counted absent for the day.

Late Work, Make-Up, and Completion

No late work or make-up exams will be allowed without consent of the professor prior to the due/exam date, except in situations where University policy requires it, or in case of truly dire circumstances, where evidence can be provided.

Cheating and Plagiarism

Don’t do it! If you incorporate any work that is not your own into any project that you do, and you do not cite the source properly, this counts as plagiarism. This includes someone doing the work for you, taking work done by another student, verbatim copying of published sources, paraphrasing published work without citation, and paraphrasing in a inappropriate way even with citation. Re-using work created for another course also counts as plagiarism in most contexts. Unless group work is explicitly permitted or required, it is expected that all of the work that you turn in is original and your own, and that any sources that you make use of are correctly cited.

If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing, it is absolutely mandatory for me to turn you in to the Dean of Students Office of Community Standards and Conduct.

Class Attendance

Attending class is mandatory. Missed classes may count against your final grade, and egregious absenteeism will be grounds for an F in the course. Homework assignments due in class can only be turned in personally the day of that class (or before). In-class assignments and activities likewise cannot be made up. Tardy arrival or early departure will also count against you, typically at the rate of a half-absence.

Electronic Devices

If you are viewing your texts digitally, you may want to bring a tablet or a laptop computer with you, since you should have a copy of the text at the ready during class discussion. Hard copy does have advantages, and you should consider using hard copies where possible. You’ll be better off (and research supports this) if you take notes on paper and transcribe it onto your computer than if you type your notes directly. Given the nature of the course, you should not have to take such copious notes as to require any extra speed afforded by typing them.

Please don’t distract others by checking email or social media on your phone, tablet, or laptop, using a music player or headphones (unless they are attached to a hearing-assistive device), or doing work for another class during our discussions. Turn off your wifi (unless a class activity requires its use), silence your phone, put away your music, and engage fully with the class discussion. Students making distracting use of electronic devices will be asked to leave and counted absent for the day, without being warned.

What to Call Me, Other Faculty, and TAs

I prefer to be called “Matt,” “Matthew,” “Professor Brown,” or “Dr. Brown.” My preferred pronouns are he/him/his. Faculty members regardless of gender should be referred to by title or degree, “Professor X” or “Dr. X,” unless they specifically tell you otherwise. Visitors or teaching assistants who have not obtained a doctoral degree or hold a relevant academic title should be referred to as “Mr. Y” or “Ms. Z,” never using “Miss” or “Mrs.” unless you are explicitly told otherwise.

Concealed Handguns on Campus

As of August 1, 2016, concealed handgun license holders are permitted to carry their weapons onto the campus and into the general buildings of the University. Unlicensed individuals may not do so, and unconcealed weapons are not allowed. You are not required to disclose whether your status as licensed carrier, nor whether or not you are carrying a handgun at any particular time, to me or anyone other than an official peace officer. Nevertheless, I ask that you voluntarily refrain from bringing weapons into the classroom. Furthermore, I will designate my office as an exclusion zone, prohibiting the concealed carry of a handgun in that space. You will be provided with oral notification to that effect upon visiting my office.

University Policies

The information contained in the following link constitutes the University’s policies and procedures segment of the course syllabus: http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies

A syllabus is a living document. This descriptions, timelines, and policies contained in this syllabus are subject to change in the interest of improving the quality of the course, at the discretion of the professor. Adequate notice will be provided for any changes, and in many cases they will be discussed with the class.