VISST-2000 courses develop students' visual analysis skills while providing the opportunity for in-depth study of the visual/structural artifacts associated with a particular topic, region, or movement. Students will also engage with the relevant primary/secondary literature for the topic at hand. Courses will pay particular attention to the larger cultural, historical, and theoretical/ideological contexts in which the visual artifacts and structures under consideration were created.COURSE DESCRIPTIONThis course explores the specificity of comics as a medium through close attention to the ways that comic books, graphic novels, and other forms of sequential art use words and images to tell stories, elicit emotions, make arguments, and otherwise engage the reader. We will consider the aesthetics of comics, representations of identity and difference in comics, and the ethics and politics of the comics form, all within the context of the rapidly expanding field of comics studies. Readings for the course will include not only comics but also critical essays drawing from the fields of literary theory, visual studies, and communications.

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