Literature Review

Time to write about some of the books and articles I have been reading over break and think about how my own interests fit into the existing scholarship.

Articles:

• Jacobs, Dale. "More Than Words: Comics as a Means of Teaching Multiple Literacies." English Journal. 96.3 (2007): 19-25.

This is a fantastic article, and probably the closest I've found to what I would actually like to write about in my dissertation. Jacob's main premise is twofold:

1) Reading comics involves a complex, multimodal literacy; and
2) by using comics in our classrooms we can help students develop as critical and engaged readers of multimodal texts (19).

Jacobs argues that our past focus on comics and graphic novels as tools for motivating reluctant readers or for stimulating students into reading more "significant" literary texts, "places severe limitations on the possibilites of our uses of the medium as literacy educators" (20).
Jacobs considers the "complex environment" whereby we negotiate meaning inside of comic texts. Through analysis of panels, gutters, word balloons, sound effects, and conceptual spaces, Jacobs argues that comics provide "multiple realms for meaning making" (21). He reference the work of the New London Group and concludes that "embracing the idea of multimodal literacy in relation to comics" allows us to "help students engage critically with ways of making meaning that exist all around them"--for example, the Internet, multimedia, newspapers, TV, film, etc.
Jacobs continues his discussion through a close reading of a passage from Polly and the Pirates. In this close reading he examines how comics address the six design elements of multimodal learning: linguistic, audio, visual, gestural, and spacial modes of interpretation.

While the close reading provides a profound way for teachers to begin understanding how comics and graphic novels can work in the classroom to build critical literacy, Jacobs does not show how his theories work with real classrooms, teachers, and students.

• Frey, Nancy and Douglas Fisher. "Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School." English Journal. Urbana: Jan. 2004. Vol. 93, Iss.3, p. 19-25

With a primary ambition of addressing struggling readers and writers, Frey and Fisher study the effects of using graphic novels on "urban English language learners and native English speakers" in order to improve written communication skills. The article considers the authors' experiences "teaching a ninth-grade writing course that emphasized the use of popular culture as a vehicle for developing students' writing skills." Noticing that many of the students were engaged in the reading of manga, graphic novels, and zines, Frey and Fisher chose short excerpts from Will Eisner's New York: The Big City to examine in the classroom. Using Leslie Oster's "Think Aloud" technique (2001), the students "read" the story while the instructors paused to "point out techniques the artist...used to convey meaning." The session continued with students brainstorming descriptive vocabulary that might accompany the text and ended with students constructing a written narrative of the story. Given the success of this lesson, Fisher and Frey chose further selections of graphic novels to help discuss the conventions of mood, tone, word choice and vocabulary with their students. According to the authors, "Using graphic novels to scaffold writing instruction helped students practice the craft of writing and gain necessary skills to become competent readers." Compelling student writing and testimony is mixed into the body of the article--strengthening the argument of the authors. Fisher and Frey refer to their use of graphic novels, manga, and the Internet as a type of "visual vocabulary" used to enrich student comprehension of writing techniques, including dialogue, tone, and mood.

• Schwartz, Gretchen E. "Graphic Novels for Multiple Literacies." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Newark: Nov 2002. Vol. 46, Iss. 3. pp. 262-265.

Schwartz argues that graphic novels have high appeal for young people and "offer diverse alternatives to traditional texts" (263). She also lists the major types or genres of graphic novels as outlined by Stephen Weiner: the Superhero story, the Human Interest story, Manga, Adaptations or Spin-offs, and Adaptations of literary work. M.R. Lavin is referenced in his assertion that "Educators need not worry that graphic novels discourage text reading", rather "reading graphic novels may require more complex cognitive skills than the reading of text alone" [article, "Comic Books and Graphic Novels for Libraries" (1998)]. Schwartz also considers the way in which students might study and examine the medium of graphic novels when she writes, "Students can explore such questions as how color affects emotions, how pictures can stereotype people, how angles of viewing affect perception, and how realism or the lack of it plays into the message of a work" (265). She concludes her article with the assertion that "the production of graphic novels allows for real diversity, which is essential for a literate democracy" (265).

• Versaci, Rocco. "How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher's Perspective." English Journal. Urbana: Nov. 2001. 61-67.

Versaci argues that comics have the ability to "teach much needed analytical and critical thinking skills, and...invite students to develop meaningful opinions about what constitutes literary merit" (62). Versaci designed an advanced first-year composition course that investigated "popular culture representations of life experiences, ethnic groups, and historical events" through comics and graphic texts. I believe this course was an introductory level college English course. Versaci describes the "interplay of the written and the visual" as a "complicated process. He refers to Sabin and McCloud whose ideas on comic closure and gutter spaces imply that our understanding of comics happens somewhere "in-between" the pictures and the words.
Versaci believes that comic books "force students...to reconcile these two means of expression" (64). Some of the essential questions he poses to his students include: "How does the drawing style interact with the story?" "Why these particular pictures?" "How would a different style change the story?" A few paragraphs are dedicated to a discussion of how his students "read" and analyzed a passage from Debbie Drecshler's Daddy's Girl. Students examined the use of light and shadow and made connections to the way the girl felt emotionally in this passage.

• Weiner, Stephen. "Show, Don't Tell: Graphic Novels in the Classroom." English Journal. Urbana: Nov. 2004. 114-117.

• Weiner, Stephen. 101 Best Graphic Novels. 1996.

Weiner offers a brief history on the rise of the graphic novel and argues, as many texts do, that graphic novels can serve as "transitions" into more intensive works." Much of the article (and the book) is focused around introducing graphic texts that teachers might consider for use in the classroom. In this way it serves more as an annotated bibliography rather than a critical consideration of how comics work in the classroom.

• Gorman, Michele. Going Graphic: Novels to Promote Literacy With Preteens and Teens. Linworth Publishers. 2004

Probably the most interesting part of Gorman's text is the Forward written by Jeff Smith in 2003. Smith writes:

"When you read a comic--when you experience the words and the pictures simultaneously--the drawings take on a dimension of time and begin to perform. The implied movement of the subject matter from one panel to the next, and indeed the panels themselves become instantaneous signals on how to proceed. The reader then--and this is the cool part--experiences in real time anything that happens inside the comic...the reader is witnessing a private film in his imagination...They are a secret that only you can activate" (ix).

The rest of the text, similar to Weiner and Gravett's texts, concerns itself with providing a brief history of the graphic novel. An exhaustive annotated bibliography makes up the bulk of the text. Rather than focusing on teachers, Gorman addresses librarians. Her goal is to build literacy through graphic novels by ensuring that library's begin to offer access these texts.