MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

“Every act committed to paper by the comics artist is aided and abetted by a silent accomplice.”

—from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics

Teachers often feature graphic novels in college courses, and recent research notes how these texts can help make the process of reading more engaging as well as more complex. Graphic novels help enhance a variety of “literacies”; they offer bold representations of people dealing with trauma or marginalization; they explore how “texts” can be re-invented; they exemplify how verbal and visual texts are often adapted; they are ideal primers for introducing basic concepts of “post-modernism.” I have often used a range of graphic novels in both Developmental Writing and Introduction to Literature courses at the City University of New York (Kingsborough Community College). My presentation will consider two recurring textual complications in graphic novels that can pose some difficulties for students who are writing about ethical questions. First, graphic novels often present crucial scenes by relying heavily on the use of verbal silence (or near silence) while emphasizing visual images; second, the deeper ethical dimensions of such scenes are suggested rather than discussed through narration or dialogue. This presentation will explain some of the challenges and options for writing about graphic novels and ethics. In particular, it will briefly explain some relevant terms (such as “gutter” and “closure”) from the chapter “Blood in the Gutter” from Scott McCloud’s well-known Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, and it will then focus on three brief and significant sequences from Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.