Studying Comics and Graphic Novels - Paperback

by Karin Kukkonen (Author)

This introduction to studying comics and graphic novels is a structured guide to a popular topic. It deploys new cognitive methods of textual analysis and features activities and exercises throughout.

• Deploys novel cognitive approaches to analyze the importance of psychological and physical aspects of reader experience
• Carefully structured to build a sequenced, rounded introduction to the subject
• Includes study activities, writing exercises, and essay topics throughout
• Dedicated chapters cover popular sub-genres such as autobiography and literary adaptation

Back Jacket

Today's comics and graphic novels tackle serious themes and win Pulitzer prizes. This guide introduces their distinctive characteristics, traces their historical development, and analyzes their narrative structure. An ideal course book, the text includes material on sub-genres, such as autobiography and literary adaptation, and deploys the principles of cognitive science to explore how we respond to texts that fuse visual and linguistic storytelling techniques.

Studying Comics and Graphic Novels includes study activities, assignments, and essay questions on each topic as well as an extensive glossary and list of prominent comic and graphic novel publications, making this an invaluable student resource.

Author Biography

Karin Kukkonen is Balzan Postdoctoral Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on the emergence and development of comics as a narrative form during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dr Kukkonen has published work on metaphors, metafiction, and multi-perspective storytelling in comics. Her recent monograph, Contemporary Comics Storytelling (2013) examines how the comics of recent years engage with the legacy of postmodernism.