English 620AS (Art Spiegelman seminar)—Fall 2014
English 620AS: Art Spiegelman and the Transformation of Comics is a graduate class in English at CSU Northridge for Fall 2014. It counts toward the completion of the M.A. Degree in English. Officially, it is an instance of ENGL 620A-Z (Seminar in Individual Authors), which, per CSUN Catalog copy, offers "in-depth study of a major British or American author," with the chosen author changing from one version of the class to the next. In other words, it's a classic "major authors" course—but in this case it's also a course about comics.
The major author in question, Art Spiegelman, may be the best known comics artist in academe. Certainly he is the most acclaimed and often-taught in literary circles. In fact, without him the current academic recognition of comics as a literary and artistic form may not have happened.
As creator, editor, historian, teacher, and impresario, Spiegelman has arguably done more than any other figure to raise the stature of comics among scholars. His seminal graphic memoir Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (1980-1991) has inspired both a prolific school of criticism and a still-expanding wave of comics that seek to tell stories rooted in real life, real history (both political and personal), and real trauma. Maus has become the most often-taught of literary graphic books, was the first comic to inspire a whole collection of academic essays, and has sparked other groundbreaking comics memoirs such as Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000-2003) and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006) and Are You My Mother? (2012). Scholars of autobiography and trauma, such as Marianne Hirsch and Hillary Chute, have placed Spiegelman at the center of their explorations of traumatic memory; Holocaust studies has recognized Maus as one of the most complex and emotionally fraught, but also popular, narratives of the Shoah and its ongoing aftermath. Spiegelman’s influence extends further still: from his onetime position as popular cover artist and gadfly at the New Yorker, to his angry post-9/11 memoir In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), to his recent career-spanning museum exhibition Co-Mix (2012-), he has drawn intellectual attention to comics with unprecedented boldness and success. Simply put, Spiegelman has changed the game for comics.
English 620AS will study Spiegelman’s whole career: from his early days in countercultural underground comix; to the heady experimentation of Raw (1980-1991), the magazine he co-published and co-edited with his wife and frequent collaborator Françoise Mouly, now one of the most respected art directors in the world; to his strong influence on a generation of artists who worked on Raw or took courses with him—artists such as Charles Burns, Sue Coe, Kaz, Gary Panter, and Chris Ware. The class will examine the aesthetic of Raw; the roots and consequences of Maus; Spiegelman’s behind-the-scenes activity as editor, curator, and advisor to numerous projects; his current turn to performance art and other media; and his recent championing of children’s comics (through the Little Lit anthology and the TOON imprint, founded by Mouly with Spiegelman’s input). It will read all of Spiegelman’s major works, including Maus and his avant-garde experimental comix of the 1970s; chart his transition from the Vietnam-era underground scene to the downtown Manhattan art scene of the 1980s; explore the dynamics of his collaborations, especially with Mouly; critically survey the ever-expanding field of Maus scholarship; trace Spiegelman’s impact on graphic novel publishing since Maus; and read a few works clearly inspired by Spiegelman’s example, including books by Bechdel and Ware.
Essentially, this is a course on the evolution of comics into a critically consecrated, academically respected art, through the lens of the one American artist who has made the greatest difference. Spiegelman’s career opens up all the essential issues in comic art scholarship, from intricate details of form to larger questions of critical reception and status—and intersects with, in fact inspired, the largest body of academic criticism on comics to date.
Click here to see our reading list!
Click here to see our course requirements, i.e. the workload!
As creator, editor, historian, teacher, and impresario, Spiegelman has arguably done more than any other figure to raise the stature of comics among scholars. His seminal graphic memoir Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (1980-1991) has inspired both a prolific school of criticism and a still-expanding wave of comics that seek to tell stories rooted in real life, real history (both political and personal), and real trauma. Maus has become the most often-taught of literary graphic books, was the first comic to inspire a whole collection of academic essays, and has sparked other groundbreaking comics memoirs such as Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000-2003) and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006) and Are You My Mother? (2012). Scholars of autobiography and trauma, such as Marianne Hirsch and Hillary Chute, have placed Spiegelman at the center of their explorations of traumatic memory; Holocaust studies has recognized Maus as one of the most complex and emotionally fraught, but also popular, narratives of the Shoah and its ongoing aftermath. Spiegelman’s influence extends further still: from his onetime position as popular cover artist and gadfly at the New Yorker, to his angry post-9/11 memoir In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), to his recent career-spanning museum exhibition Co-Mix (2012-), he has drawn intellectual attention to comics with unprecedented boldness and success. Simply put, Spiegelman has changed the game for comics.
English 620AS will study Spiegelman’s whole career: from his early days in countercultural underground comix; to the heady experimentation of Raw (1980-1991), the magazine he co-published and co-edited with his wife and frequent collaborator Françoise Mouly, now one of the most respected art directors in the world; to his strong influence on a generation of artists who worked on Raw or took courses with him—artists such as Charles Burns, Sue Coe, Kaz, Gary Panter, and Chris Ware. The class will examine the aesthetic of Raw; the roots and consequences of Maus; Spiegelman’s behind-the-scenes activity as editor, curator, and advisor to numerous projects; his current turn to performance art and other media; and his recent championing of children’s comics (through the Little Lit anthology and the TOON imprint, founded by Mouly with Spiegelman’s input). It will read all of Spiegelman’s major works, including Maus and his avant-garde experimental comix of the 1970s; chart his transition from the Vietnam-era underground scene to the downtown Manhattan art scene of the 1980s; explore the dynamics of his collaborations, especially with Mouly; critically survey the ever-expanding field of Maus scholarship; trace Spiegelman’s impact on graphic novel publishing since Maus; and read a few works clearly inspired by Spiegelman’s example, including books by Bechdel and Ware.
Essentially, this is a course on the evolution of comics into a critically consecrated, academically respected art, through the lens of the one American artist who has made the greatest difference. Spiegelman’s career opens up all the essential issues in comic art scholarship, from intricate details of form to larger questions of critical reception and status—and intersects with, in fact inspired, the largest body of academic criticism on comics to date.
Click here to see our reading list!
Click here to see our course requirements, i.e. the workload!