ENG 380: Comics and Graphic Novels in Contemporary Culture

Dr. Robert Rozema

Online Course



Maus. Watchmen. Fun Home. The Dark Knight Returns. Comics like these have earned both critical and popular acclaim, addressed a range of serious subjects, and developed their own visual grammar and narrative conventions. This online course, offered in the spring of 2018, will focus on both iconic and lesser-known works of the comics medium, situating them within a comic studies approach that challenges the distinction between high and low culture. Students will learn to recognize the formal elements of comics, examine a range of comics genres, consider the possibilities and limitations of this new narrative medium, critique the representation of race, class, and gender within comics, and write critical responses to comics in both print and visual media. Some key questions we’ll try to answer: