ENGL 147 - Comics As Literature

• Identify the major landmarks, cultural trends, and social pressures that influenced the development of the American comic for and popular genres, especially in regard to representations of race, gender, and sexuality.
• Identify and compare the narrative styles of comics from various traditions, genres, and cultures.
• Compare conventions and subjects of representation in American mainstream comics, independent comics, and foreign comics.
• Analyze the conventions and capabilities of comics in relation to plain texts and films.
• Apply literary terms and concepts to comics.
• Interpret comics of varying degrees of complexity by applying the reading conventions that have grown up around the medium in various cultures.
• Evaluate the interpretations of others by comparing them back to the text.
• Distinguish one’s own world view from the theme of a comic.

1. Literary interpretation
2. Conventions of narrative comics
3. Mainstream vs. independent press
4. American vs. Manga layout and narrative structure
5. Representative art
6. Cultural representation
7. History and evolution of comics
8. Memoir comics
9. Web comics