Race and Ethnicity in the American Graphic Novel

L393 — Fall 2020

Instructor
De Witt Douglas Kilgore
Course Description
We will consider how Jewish, African American, Latino, and Asian American visual narratives have portrayed race and ethnicity. We’ll read Scott McCloud’s theory of comics as participatory and democratic sequential art and investigate how these artists use the medium to engage, revise, and overturn old stereotypes of racial and ethnic “others,” and will think about autobiography, kids’ gag strips, funny animal stories, fantasy, mythology, and social satire. Readings will include Will Eisner, Fagin the Jew; Mira Jacob, Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations; Ebony Flowers, Hot Comb; Mat Johnson, Incognegro, Amy Kurzweil, Flying Couch; Art Spiegelman, Maus; Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese. 2 papers, 2 exams, a research team project, participation and attendance.

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