fsem 1111 ✪ ✪ john tiedemann tr 12:00–1:50 ✪ ✪ john.tiedemann@du.edu

sturm 258 ✪ ✪ 303.871.7609

graphicwriting.blogspot.com/ ✪ ✪ office hrs: w 12–3, r 2–4, and by appointment

G RAPHIC

AC RO SS C ULTURES

W RITIN G

✪ the class The humble comic book, once derided as a frivolous form of adolescent entertainment, has in recent decades given rise to an array of innovative artistic forms that address themes formerly reserved for high culture and academia. The mysteries of sex and death, the ambiguities of history and politics, the arcana of philosophy and pure mathematics: all this and more can be found in the pages of contemporary graphic novels, manga, webcomics, and motion comics. In this course, we will examine this “graphic writing” in order to explore the unique opportunities for cross-cultural meaning-making afforded by the combination of words and pictures. We will consider how the mixed medium of graphic writing enables its creators to tell stories that cut across boundaries of race, nation, gender, class, religion, and sexuality, thereby challenging entrenched attitudes, giving voice to diverse communities, and promoting intercultural exchange.

In addition to reading and writing about graphic texts, students will create a piece of graphic writing of their own, visit artists and writers at work, and present their work at a class colloquium. (Please note that you do not need to be able to draw to take this course.

✪ course texts Alison Bechdel , Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Daniel Clowes, Ghost World. Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery. Art Spiegelman Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis. Craig Thompson , Blankets. I’ve created an Amazon list of our texts at http://amzn.to/U5ywTN. You might also check Barnes & Noble online or the Tattered Cover online. Supplementary readings will be made available on Blackboard.

✪ major projects In addition to completing weekly readings and informal writing assignments, initiating class discussions, and taking part in our conversations in and out of class, students will undertake two major projects:

• In the first, students will write a critical analysis of a piece of graphic writing, applying concepts learned from our scholarly readings to interpret a graphic text of their choosing.

• In the second, students will create a piece of graphic writing of their own, combining words and pictures to make an argument about a significant contemporary cross-cultural issue.

Each student will design his or her specific project in consultation with me. Students will exhibit their work for Project 2 online and at a class colloquium open to the University community.

✪ course goals and expectations The goals of the First-Year Seminars are:

1. To discover what it means to be an active member of an intellectual community by meeting rigorous academic expectations through critical reading, discussion, research, and/or writing.

2. To practice newly acquired skills in an active learning environment. 3. To foster a strong academic advising relationships between teacher

and students.

To those ends and per our Discoveries Week discussions, you will:

1. Aim to be able to teach what you’ve learned in class; 2. Help your classmates to develop and present their ideas by leading

class discussion and participating actively in in-class workshops and off-campus outings.

3. Meet regularly with me to discuss your work in our class and your other classes and to plan for your future at DU.

✪ policies • Engagement

I expect you all to be active learners and thoughtful collaborators, committed to the material, your work, and your peers’ learning. Your level of engagement is made manifest in a number of ways, including participation in face-to-face class meetings, in peer review, and in your efforts to improve not only your own learning experience but the learning experience of the entire class. I will assess your engagement as follows:

Ø “Superior” engagement means that the student is always prepared, often adding additional insights to online discussion and providing extensive feedback to writing. S/he demonstrates active learning via consistently perceptive and energetic engagement with the material, his or her peers, and me.

Ø “Average” engagement means that the student generally seems prepared. Generally, his or her participation in online discussion and feedback on writing seem to encourage and support others in the class. The student’s presence is productive

Ø “Weak” engagement means that the student’s participation is listless, lackluster, or only intermittent.

• Attendance

Because interaction with others is a vital part of learning, I expect you to attend every class meeting, scheduled conference, and online activity. You are allowed two absences without penalty; for each absence after the second one, your final grade will drop by one third of a letter (e.g., from an A to an A–, from an A– to a B+, etc.) Should you miss four class meetings, I will suggest that you consider dropping the course and re-enrolling in a quarter during which you can devote the necessary effort. If I determine that excessive absences have prevented you from meeting the goals of the course, you may fail. If you miss a class, you are personally responsible for learning about any missed material or assignments, either from classmates or from our blog. I make no distinction between excused and unexcused absences, so save yours for illness or emergency.

• Late Work

Assignments are due when they are due. I will accept late work only if you have cleared the lateness with me in advance, and then only under the most extenuating circumstances. An assignment that is turned in late without advance clearance will be graded down a third of a letter grade (e.g., from an A to an A–, from an A– to a B+) for each day it’s late.

• Civility and Tolerance

This class affirms DU’s Code of Student Conduct (http://www.du.edu/ccs/code.html), which in part “expects students to recognize the strength of personal differences while respecting institutional values.” Because writing courses rely heavily on interactions between all members of the class, students and faculty must act in a manner respectful of different positions and perspectives. A student who behaves in an uncivil or intolerant manner will be asked to stop and/or formally reprimanded and/or subject to action by the Office of Citizenship and Community Standards.

Becoming educated requires encountering new ideas and information, some of which may conflict with an individual’s existing knowledge or perspectives. I expect students to engage such materials thoughtfully, in ways that reflect the values and mission of the University of Denver

• Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

I will provide reasonable accommodations to every student who has a disability that has been documented by The University of Denver Disability Services Program (www.du.edu/disability/dsp or 303.871.2455).

• Plagiarism

I follow the Council of Writing Program Administrators policy “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism,” which states, “In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source” (http://wpacouncil.org/node/9). DU’s Honor Code also maintains that all members of the University must responsibly use the work of others. Students who have plagiarized a project will receive an F on that project, and the instructor will inform the Director of Writing and the Office of Community and Citizenship Standards, which may take further action. Any documented acts of plagiarism after the first may be subject to more severe actions.

✪ grades For each of your projects, you will receive a provisional grade on the revised draft that you turn in to me, along with my suggestions for revision. That provisional grade will rise, fall, or stay the same depending upon how effectively you revise as you complete your final draft. Final drafts of both projects are due to me by noon on Thursday, Nov. 22.

Your final grade will be distributed as follows:

• Project 1: 40% • Project 2: 40% • Engagement: 20%

✪ course calendar T Sept. 11: Read Art Spiegelman, Maus, Book I, chapters 1–4; and watch

Scott McCloud’s TED talk (on the blog). R Sept. 13: Spiegelman, Maus, Book I, chapters 5 and 6; and selection on

Blackboard (in the Content folder) from Kaplan and Waldman, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books.

T Sept. 18: Spiegelman, Maus, Book II, chapters 1 and 2; and selection on Blackboard from Hunt, Corris, and Lomas, Art, Word and Image: 2,000 Years of Visual/Textual Interaction.

R Sept. 20: Read Spiegelman, Maus, Book II, chapter 3–5.

T Sept. 25: Daniel Clowes, Ghost World, chapters 1–4; and Giroux, “Teen Girls’ Resistance and the Disappearing Social in Ghost World” (on Blackboard).

R Sept. 27: Read Clowes, Ghost World, chapters 5–8; selection on Blackboard from McCloud, Understanding Comics.

Calendar continues on next page. . . .

✪ course calendar (cont’d) T Oct. 2: Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, Incognegro: A Graphic

Mystery, Part I; and selection on Blackboard from Duffy, Jennings, and Knight, Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art, and Culture.

R Oct. 4: Johnson and Pleece, Incognegro, Part II; and selection on Blackboard from Nama, Super Black: American Culture and Black Superheroes.

T Oct. 9: Workshop: Drafting Project 1. R. Oct. 11: Workshop: Revising Project 1.

T Oct. 16: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home; Hillary Chute, “Comics Form and Narrating Lives” (on Blackboard).

R. Oct. 18: Bechdel, Fun Home; selection on Blackboard from Eisner, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative.

Calendar continues on next page. . . .

✪ course calendar (cont’d) T Oct. 23: Craig Thompson, Blankets, chapters I–III; and selection on

Blackboard from Lewis and Kraemer, Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels.

R. Oct. 25: Craig Thompson, Blankets, chapters IV–VI.

T Oct. 30: Craig Thompson, Blankets, chapters VII–IX. R. Nov. 1: Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis, Book I, “The Veil;” and selection

on Blackboard from Aldama and Royal, Multicultural Comics.

T Nov. 6: Complete Book I of Satrapi, Persepolis. R. Nov. 8: Satrapi, Persepolis, Book II.

T. Nov. 13: Workshop: Drafting Project 2. R. Nov. 15: Workshop: Revising Project 2.

Final drafts of both projects are due to me by noon on Thursday, Nov. 22.