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Teaching Graphic Novels in the English Classroom pp 11–28Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Not Just Novels: The Pedagogical Possibilities of the Graphic Narrative

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Abstract

Bourelle uses the case study of his advanced composition course to highlight the use and advantages of short graphic narratives in enhancing students’ reading, critical thinking, and writing. As Bourelle outlines in this chapter, his students compose both written analytical papers and their own attempts at graphic narratives, exercises which enable students to appreciate and understand the comic book/sequential art/graphic novel genre broadly, as well as gain a greater understanding of multimodal literacy. Students also learn about the short form as well, coming to understand graphic narratives as a discrete literary art form, much like studying the short story is distinct from studying the novel. Finally, by exploring multiple examples of graphic narratives, students gain a broad understanding of the variety of storytelling and illustration techniques, much more so than if they were only looking at a handful of full-length graphic novels.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See also my chapter “Multimodality 101: Graphic Narratives and Multimodal Composition” in the anthology Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching with Graphic Narratives, wherein I argue that comic books are multimodal and therefore can and should be taught in composition classes alongside other common multimodal projects such as websites, videos, podcasts, and brochures.

  2. 2.

    Barbara Postema, in Narrative Structure in Comics: Making Sense of Fragments, argues against the use of the term “graphic narrative” (as well as “graphic novel”), stating, “[T]here is a danger inherent precisely in creating a separation and disassociation between different kinds of comics genres, especially when the labels are ill-defined or haphazardly applied” (xi). However, I don’t advocate using “graphic narrative” as an umbrella term for all comics, as Postema fears. Rather, I use it as a way to identify short graphic stories, whether fiction or nonfiction, as opposed to ongoing series or novel-length stand-alone books.

  3. 3.

    All student comments were obtained with IRB approval.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Andrew Bourelle

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  1. Andrew Bourelle
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Culver Stockton College, Canton, Missouri, USA

    Alissa Burger

Appendix

Appendix

An incomplete list of graphic narratives that can be used for teaching the genre (complete bibliographic references in the Works Cited page):

  • “Hawaii 1997” by Sam Alden

  • “Lost and Found” by Lynda Berry

  • “I Love You” by Pascal Blanchet

  • “Afterlife” by J. Bone

  • “The Last Bullet” and “Winter Crossing” by Andrew Bourelle and Ed Bourelle

  • “Night Time” and “Stars” by Michael Cho

  • “The Grass Seed” by Claudia Dávila

  • “The Speaker” by Brandon Graham

  • “Dimensions” by Ted May

  • “Black Water ,” “Mixed Metaphors ,” and “His Story” by Dave McKean

  • “Red Eye” by Christoph Nieman

  • “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen , adapted by Jason Cobley

  • “The Last Dragon,” “Sometimes I Have Feelings,” and “20,000,000” by Isabella Rotman

  • “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare, adapted by Robert Berry and Josh Levitas

  • “Against the Flow” by Nick Sousanis

  • “Bigger Blacker Kiss” by Sim

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Bourelle, A. (2018). Not Just Novels: The Pedagogical Possibilities of the Graphic Narrative. In: Burger, A. (eds) Teaching Graphic Novels in the English Classroom. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63459-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63459-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63458-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63459-3

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