Image, Text, and Story: Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom (20/100)

 

Image, Text, and Story: Comics and Graphic
Novels in the Classroom

Rachel Marie-Crane Williams
University of Iowa

 

 

Pairing visual images with words
is an easy way to help students
develop stronger visual literacy.
Comics offer an opportunity
for students to scrutinize how
interdependent images and
words can create a strong sequential narrative.

 

 

There are at least three reasons why comics and graphic novels are
useful teaching tools: (1) there is a great deal of student interest in
this genre; (2) they are inexpensive to obtain; and (3) the vocabulary
is not difficult so they are easy to read (Wright & Sherman, 1999).

Most important in the art room, comics create opportunities for
teachers to engage students in meaningful discussions about visual
perception, drawing and design, art history, and content on multiple
levels (Berkowitz & Packer, 2001).

 

 

Comics offer an opportunity
for students to scrutinize how interdependent images and words can
create a strong sequential narrative.

 

 

 

Thierry Groensteen, a
comics scholar, states four reasons that
comics were once "condemned to artistic
insignificance:" (1) they are a hybrid form
combining words and images; (2) the literary
aspect of comics is seen as sub-par in terms
of quality; (3) comics are perceived as closely
connected to the "low" art of caricature; and
(4) comics are associated with a regression to
childhood pleasures (Groensteen, 2000, p.
34). Ironically, the past relegation to the
world of low art is, at times, advantageous for
comics. Roger Sabin (1996) wrote
The comic's exclusion from the art
establishment enables it to eschew the
dampening appraisal of art criticism.
Moreover, its association with street
culture gives it a certain edge, which
many contemporary artists have vainly
attempted to transfer to the gallery.
Whereas fine art can only send shocks
through the art world, comics-available
to a far broader audience-are still
regarded as dangerous enough to be
clamped down on intermittently. (p. 236)

 

 

 

Using Comics and Graphic
Novels to Explore Empathy,
History, and Story

 

 

Graphic novels, like a compelling work
of art, or a well-crafted piece of writing, have
the potential to generate a sense of empathy
and human connectedness among students. For
example, in Maus I by Art Spiegelman (1986),
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2004), or Palestine
by Joe Sacco (2002),

 

>> '쥐'는 그래픽 노블

 

 

Art allows viewers to step into the eyes
of another and consider a different point of view.
Candace Jesse Stout, a professor at Ohio State
University, stated, "It is the aesthetic experience
that makes possible 'privileged moments'
through which students can live new experiences
and move beyond the limitations of self" (Stout,
1999, p. 34).

 

 

Art allows viewers to step into the eyes
of another and consider a different point of view.
Candace Jesse Stout, a professor at Ohio State
University, stated, "It is the aesthetic experience
that makes possible 'privileged moments'
through which students can live new experiences
and move beyond the limitations of self" (Stout,
1999, p. 34).

 

 

I had to work hard to erase students' stereotypes,
even more so to erase their ideas about
traditional comic drawing styles including

realism, hyperanatomical

>>하이퍼-해부학상의

depictions of muscular
superheroes and heroines, and Manga/Animeinspired
illustrations.

 

 

 Initially, many students had a great
concept, but flagged when they had to
move from a concept to a story arc.

 

 

Graphic Novels and Human
Rights

>>커리큘럼 운영한 이야기..

 

 

equitable 공정한, 공평한

 

 My experiences confirm that comics are a
powerful way for students to envision the
future, understand historical events, explore
their own narratives, develop empathy, and
learn about images, text, technology, and
design.