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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
opportunity of learning about one of the fastest growing literary phenomena of the past decades. The aim of the lectures is firstly to provide the attendants with a socio-historical context to be able to understand the evolution and the changes of the medium from its direct predecessor, the comic strip; secondly, in a seminar approach, to go through critical and theoretical tools to analyze texts from different perspectives, reinforcing theories with a pathway of close readings of European and American masterpieces. The final aim of the course is to gain enough verbo- visual literacy as to be able to have a clear idea of concepts like styles, themes, influences, inter- and transmedia, as well as adaptation issues. |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
The course is aimed at creating a pathway of critical analysis and discussion about the graphic novel, offering students both an historical overview of the artistic and social conjunctures that have led to the emergence of graphic novels and the theoretical tools that are necessary to read and comment on diverse artworks. The close reading sessions will offer a chance to confront directly with the pages of masterpieces that come from some prolific strands of graphic narratives from Europe and US, discussing thematic cores such as voyage, post-apocalypse, mythology, the city and the suburbs, identity issues and the way they are displayed in such a hybrid medium as the graphic novel. By the end of the course, the students should possess a broad mental map of the history and the development of this verbo-visual art, being able to discern between comics and graphic novels and to discuss about the interconnections (and the differences) between graphic novels and other media; moreover, they will gain knowledge and critical insight about worldwide acclaimed masterpieces that have marked a turning point in the recent history of graphic narratives. |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
The course will be worth 5 credits. The evaluation will be divided in two parts: Written test (Open questions) The students will be faced with 5 open-ended questions, each of them to be answered as a micro essay. Questions will cover all the topics from the first part of the course (up to session V). Oral part The students will discuss critically and artistically about a graphic novel of their choice from the ones analyzed through the second half of the course, covering authorship, context, formal aspects, themes, personal considerations. |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
Auster Paul; Mazzucchelli David; Karasik Paul, City of glass, London, Faber and Faber, 2005. Bechdel Alison, Fun Home. A family tragicomic, London, Jonathan Cape, 2006. Buzzati Dino, Poem strip. Including an explanation of the Afterlife (translation by Marina Harss), New York, NYRB Classics, 2009. Gipi, Land of the Sons, Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 2018. Roca, Paco, Wrinkles, London, Knockabout Comics, 2015. Satrapi Marjane, Persepolis I and II: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return , London, Random House, 2008. Spiegelman Art, The complete Maus, London, Penguins, 2003 Zerocalcare, The Armadillo prophecy, Portland, Ablaze, 2023. Secondary literature Baetens Jan; Frey Hugo, The graphic novel. An introduction, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015. Extracts from: Del Rey Cabero
McCloud, S., Understanding comics (The invisible art), New York, HarperCollins, 1993. Mikkonen, K., The narratology of comic art, New York, Routledge, 2017.
Smith |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
The course will be structured in 13 classes; frontal lectures will altern with seminar classes of group discussions of themes and topics from the selected corpus and with exercises of analysis and close reading. |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
The purpose of this course is to offer an insight and a critical traversal of the Graphic Novel, one of the most acclaimed storytelling media of our times. Graphic novel has made its way in the academic environments due to its achieved popularity, its practices of elevation to literary forms (novelization), and its data of production, distribution and reading across the world. The clear, broad definition of comics given by Scott McCloud in his pioneering work Understanding comics as «Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence» is still valid and universal, although since the 90s there has been a growing need for an understanding of the one-shot form of graphic novel and its peculiarities. During the first part of the course, we will start with the historical overview and critical commentaries by Baetens and Frey to approach the developments and the changes undergone by the US comics and the European Bande Dessinée, tracing a porous map of influences until reaching present times. With the tools provided by narratologists, semiotics, and critics from the comic’s field, we will formerly define what do we commonly mean with the expression Graphic novel; latterly, we will discuss the forms of reading and theorizing it. Through the second part of the course, we will adopt a close reading approach to analyze some masterpieces from XX and XXI century. In the first place, we will give an overview to the US and European industry, discussing the themes and the forms that have prevailed and those which constitute a minor (but wealthy) space. Secondly, we will narrow our analysis down to Italian, French, Spanish and Anglo-Saxons case studies, considering popular works of internationally acclaimed artists like Spiegelman, Buzzati, Satrapi, Gipi, Zerocalcare, Paco Roca, Bechdel, Mazzucchelli, which have gained success of audience and critics.
A brief historical introduction: verbo-visuality through times.
The circumstances of a success: the US comics and the Bande Dessinée.
Transitional elements: the Underground premises and the Graphic Novel configuration.
Graphic Novel, mode d’emploi : definitions and theories.
How to read a (and what to do with) a Graphic Novel: formalist, semiotic, narratological approaches.
Out of time masterpieces: Dino Buzzati’s Poem Strip (Poema a fumetti) and Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
Contemporary graphic novels: themes, tendencies, influences.
Italian pioneering authors I: Gipi’s Land of the Sons (La terra dei Figli).
Italian pioneering authors II: Zerocalcare’s The Armadillo prophecy.
A graphic novel from Spain: Paco Roca’s Wrinkles.
Autobiographical voices I: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.
Autobiographical voices II: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
Mechanisms of transformation: Paul Auster’s and Davide Mazzucchelli’s City of Glass. Conclusions. |
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Poslední úprava: doc. Mgr. Pavel Štichauer, Ph.D. (05.11.2023)
The course is intended for international students of both bachelor’s and master’s degree who wish to approach or deepen their graphic novel literacy and to gain insight about the evolution of the comics form. Due to its extensive coverage of history and theories of analysis of the medium, no previous knowledge of the topic is required to attend the course and to pass the exam. |