History in as Comics

Comics emerged as a new mass medium when American newspapers (in such cities as New York, Chicago, San Francisco) started printing them in Sunday supplements in the final decade of the nineteenth century. The basic premise of this course is that comics and other forms of graphic narrative are cultural forms of representation and culture-historic means of visual-verbal communication that produce meaning. The course aims to deepen our understanding of the origins and developments of comics in the United States. It will provide a historical overview from the so-called Yellow Kid newspaper series to more recent texts. The course will situate the respective texts in the historical and cultural contexts, while also surveying the works' artistic devices. The syllabus will also include a variety of historical materials and a range of theoretical viewpoints. The course is divided into 4 parts; in the first two parts we will focus on the beginnings of comics as a mass medium, and we will develop a vocabulary for analyzing comics. The sessions in the second half of the semester will focus on the works of one of the most well known comics artists: Art Spiegelman. We will read his MAUS as well as his In the Shadow of No Towers, which deals with the traumatic events of 9/11. Please purchase: Spiegelman, Art. The Complete Maus (I&II). London: Penguin, 200.3 Print. [ISBN: 978-0141014081] Seminar für Anglistik Beachten Sie, dass Sie diesen Kurs nach den Prüfungsordnungen ab 2011 nicht besuchen dürfen, wenn Sie die für dieses Modulelement laut Fachspezifischen Bestimmungen und Modulhandbuch notwendigen Voraussetzungen noch nicht erfüllen. Universität Siegen WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Meyer Christina