Browsing by Subject "Graphic novels"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Beur, blanc, black : the banlieue talks back in novels, films, and graphic novels
(2018-05) Wright, Jocelyn Asa; Picherit, Hervé G.; Brower, Benjamin Claude; Wettlaufer, Alexandra; Oscherwitz, Dayna
This dissertation analyzes works by persons who grew up in the French banlieue, the economically-disadvantaged suburban areas that have become a metonym for conversations about integration, crime, and violence in France. I focus on the time period 1999 to 2016 because a number of heavily-mediatized events that have shaped perceptions of the banlieue in the French imaginary took place at this time. During the first decade and a half of the twenty-first century, a number of events—the 2005 riots, the headscarf debates, and numerous terrorist attacks domestically and internationally—have fossilized a particular conception of the French banlieue within the French and international cultural memory as a lawless space of destruction, a hotbed of Islamic extremism, and a dangerous place for women. This study elucidates problems of authorship, authenticity and representation in the banlieue, and analyzes why banlieue authors tend oscillate between mediums. I identify unique stylistic elements in each medium that are shifting assumptions about integration, mobility, and social dynamics in the banlieue. I argue that banlieue artists use novels, films and graphic novels to contest the myth of the banlieue as an urban ghetto
"A dame to kill for" or "a slut-- worth dying for" : women in the noir of Frank Miller
(2011-05) Lamfers, Jordan Scott; Bremen, Brian A.; Kornhaber, Donna
The depictions of women in film noir and neo-noir have long been objects of interest for feminist scholars. In this report, I extend this scholarship to examine Frank Miller's Sin city graphic novel series as a version of neo-noir that is both intimately connected to noir tradition and innovative in its approach, specifically in terms of his representation of women. Miller depicts his female characters in a variety of ways that reflect both the positive and negative imagery of women in classic noir and neo-noir; in doing so, he creates a new and complex vision of women in noir. This report uses three different characterizations of women in film noir--the spider woman, the femme moderne, and the angel--to explore the ways in which Miller's female characters can be understood to simultaneously uphold and challenge these conventions.
Drawing crime and justice in Latin American crime comics and graphic novels 1970-2015
(2017-05) Cannon, Samuel Scott; Arroyo, Jossianna; Borge, Jason; Polit, Gabriela; Moore, Lorraine; Merino, Ana
This project investigates contemporary Latin American crime comics in order to interrogate how these popular culture texts represent concepts of crime and justice. This study looks to crime comics that fall into the detective or private investigator genre between 1970 and 2015 from Mexico and Chile, precisely because they confront crime directly. In particular, the Mexican comic character El Pantera, created by Daniel Muñoz, and Ramón Díaz Eterovic’s detective Heredia from Chile are the primary focuses of this investigation. These two characters have formed a part of their respective cultural imaginaries over the last four decades and as such they serve as reference points for how concepts of crime and justice have evolved in Mexico and Chile. The investigation of these comic narratives brings to light that economic and political policies related to neoliberalism are seen as sources of crime and violence. This investigation proposes that Mexican and Chilean comics reveal that neoliberalism is criminal through the lens of popular criminology and that these comic texts are means of processing neoliberal violence and disappearance in the realm of popular culture. This research proposes new approaches to the study of Latin America comics by putting Mexican and Chilean crime comics into dialogue with comic theories by Scott McCloud, Thierry Groensteen, and Nick Souanis, as well as Latin American comic research by Bruce Campbell, Ana Merino, Anne Rubenstein, Harold Hinds and Charles Tatum. In addition, these comic texts are investigated through critical theories by Giorgio Agamben, Michel De Cearteau, Pierre Nora, Slavoj Žižek, and Sergio Villalobos-Ruminott. This research represents a unique approach to Latin American comics that take the contextual realities of contemporary neoliberal practices into consideration, and offers new comic theories such as the multibraid network, new gutter spaces, and the idea of “Ashes in the Gutter” to bring McCloud’s writings in touch with Mexican and Chilean realities. In addition, this dissertation provides one of the only histories of the Chilean comic industry written in English.
Reading the German graphic novel : understanding learners’ readings of multimodal literary comics
(2019-06-21) Benjamin, John David; Urlaub, Per; Arens, Katherine, 1953-; Boas, Hans C; Fulk, Kirkland A; Henry, Nicholas A
This dissertation considers the reading process among collegiate German language learners interacting with related texts in the target language: short prose texts by Bertolt Brecht (Brecht, 1967) and their adaptations in comics form by Ulf K. (Brecht & K., 2014). This comparison aims to understand the second language (L2) reading process of multimodal texts and to establish an instructional model for teaching them. The study addresses three primary research questions: (1) How do comics compare to prose texts regarding L2 reading comprehension? (2) How does genre-specific background knowledge of comics in terms of form, plot, and theme affect reading comprehension? (3) Do students enjoy comics, do they consider them literature, and how do these views affect reading comprehension? The dissertation provides applied linguists and scholars of literature, visual studies, and multimodality with systematic insights into the instructional use of graphic novels and multimodal texts. L2 reading research emerged over 30 years ago from L1 work and has since developed new insights into L2 reading. Beginning in the 1990s, theoretical approaches related to new literacies and multiple literacies have provided scholars new methods for understanding and defining L2 reading comprehension. Recent work on multimodality, focused on meaning-making beyond the written word, has worked to expand the definition of reading material, allowing researchers to consider a wider range of texts. The German graphic novel is well suited for the exploration of these issues in research on L2 literary reading at the university level. Scholars are increasingly investigating these works as material for L2 learners. Much work is needed to connect comics theory to L2 literary reading and reader-oriented literary-theoretical approaches. The dissertation’s study measures the L2 reading of comics and prose texts through Immediate Recall protocols (IRPs), modeled after Bernhardt (1983), rated according to a set of Rubrics for Assessing Reading Across Modalities (RARAM) and idea units, as well as pre- and postquestionnaires. The IRPs allow the researcher to see what participants comprehend from a text and how they understand it. The prequestionnaire determines the participants’ familiarity with comics to measure background knowledge and their affective views of the medium. The postquestionnaire elicits shifts in the participants’ views of comics as literature and language learning material