AP/HUMA 3687 6.00

Graphic Narratives for and about Children and Youth

This course provides an introduction to the graphic novel form, a medium of literature for and about children and youth. Students will ready widely in this genre, with an attention given to texts from a wide range of multicultural contexts, to explore how this new medium shapes and interrogates our perceptions of childhood and youth in the contemporary world. Graphic novels will be read in tandem with a range of readings from literary and visual theory, contextualizing not simply the visual modes of communication in a theoretical fashion, but also offering theoretical paradigms for understanding the creators’ representations of young people. Through reading and analysis, students in this course will have the opportunity to critically examine how graphic novels represent children and youth, and theorize about the larger significance of this medium of literature in terms of reading practices for these young audiences. These graphic novels will explore the specific relationship between and among children and youth, identity, adolescence, child and youth sexuality, and constructions of race and multiculturalism. Students in this course will have the opportunity to engage with current research in the fields of childhood and youth studies, visual cultures, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, literary criticism and beyond to examine how the graphic novel form shapes, and often reinforces, our perceptions of childhood and youth in the contemporary world.
The objectives of this course are for students to:
1) Develop an understanding and an ability to read and understand graphic novels as artefacts of visual culture and children’s literature.
2) Develop students’ ability to discuss and write about visual narratives for and about children and youth.
3) Expand students’ understanding of graphic novels by reading them in tandem with key theoretical readings.
4) Examine and question the representation(s) of children and youth.
5) Explore how graphic novels have the potential