While I’m not really sure what academic libraries have to do with youth services, aside from the article about undergraduate leisure collections, that is the topic this week. From the Weiner readings this week, we can gather that there is a small but growing interest in using graphic novels (here referring to more literary works, with comics being relegated to second class status) in the college classroom. Subject wise, the humanities are most welcoming, with no mention of any of the sciences using graphic texts to supplement their coursework. There are comics out there that could be used to illustrate complex ideas in a more succinct manner. Check out this biology comic by Ellis.
The only mention of the graphic novel format being used for informational purposes came from Gwen Evans in “The Library After Dark: The Promotion of Collections and Services.” Evans talks about how she gathered a group of students to create a library informational booklet in graphic novel format. Unfortunately the article does not update us on whether this promotion was actually successful, although it does make the case that artists and other visually oriented students will find it more useful than text only brochures.
Since these articles showed growing interest in the more
literary graphic novels, I’ll talk a little about what place the more popular
comics might have in academia. The articles talk briefly about having graphic
novels and comics in a leisure reading collection for undergraduates to enjoy,
but make little mention of popular comics being used in the classroom. One
professor teaching a Japanese culture class included manga, which seems to fall
in the same category as popular western comics, i.e. “not scholarly.” He used
manga as an example of Japanese popular culture. This same application could be
made to many of the superhero comics in history classes. A course on World War
II might make use of Captain America and his comic book fight against the
Nazis.
A course on Mythology would find plenty to consider in comparing superhero stories to more ancient myths, or looking at how comics have updated these ancient myths, as seen in Thor.
Anyone else have ideas about how to integrate the more
popular comics into courses covering all kinds of different subjects?
Okay, my comments won't post so maybe 3rd time is the charm?
ReplyDelete1) i think the comparison of comic book to mythology is a great idea, though I would take it one step further and compare the themes in addition to the characters
2) graphic novels could also be used in a contemporary history class. there are a few GN that MCPL has shelved upstairs that pertain to famous criminals, such as Jack the Ripper.
3) finally, I'm really surprised that there is not a greater amount of graphic novels in the sciences, as some of the concepts, such as osmosis, are easier to understand through illustrations rather than written word
I imagine there are some history or political science classes where comics could be quite useful. I took courses in both of these subjects as an undergrad, and we generally just learned about conflicts, political issues, and cultural circumstances through our textbooks or lectures. While I found these interesting enough, they really lacked the human component of works such as Persepolis. In these subject areas, it's really important to understand the cultural and social issues people face to fully under the issues on a larger scale, and comics can be very adept at doing this.
ReplyDeleteI minored in Folklore as an undergrad and I think comics/graphic novels would apply to that field. Now this is a very basic, watered-down description, but folklore is the study of groups and how they express themselves and relate to each other. This is done by song, dance, stories, material culture, and art. So I can see where comics would fit into folklore really well. For example, Zines (which often contained comics, musings, articles, etc) were often a really big topic in my classes. And since comics fans have a huge presence, a folklorist could definitely study them as a folk group.
ReplyDeleteOne of my professors told me yesterday that he is using Alan Moore's V for Vendetta in his secondary education content area reading classes this year. He is teaching pre-service teachers and demonstrating to them how they can use similar texts in their secondary languauge arts classrooms. He said this is the first time he's taught using a graphic novel and his feelings are mixed. The students seem to like the book, but he finds it boring. Guess he didn't get the set that includes the mask!
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