Graphic Narratives: Self and Other
Posted on December 14, 2010 by graphicnovelsandthemiddleeast
This past month the Modern Language Association (MLA) published an edited volume titled “Teaching the Graphic Novel,” an extensive collection of contributor snapshots illustrating use of comics and graphic novels in classrooms of various grade levels and disciplines. While the classroom contexts are on the university level, the sheer range of content topics and methods of integration offer many possible sources of inspiration for the middle or high school teacher.
One of the chapters that caught my eye was M.G. Aune’s “Teaching the Graphic Travel Narrative.” Master graphic novelist Craig Thompson‘s “Carnet de Voyage,” a graphic travel diary Thompson kept while on a book tour that took him throughout Europe and North Africa, as well as Joe Sacco’s “graphic journalism” in the Middle East, are examined. Aune uses several panels to guide students through question about how “Self” and “Other” are depicted during travel. (At right, an image from Craig Thompson’s “Carnet de Voyage”)
Students not only reflect on the content and context of each image, but the ways in which comic artists can play with elements of style and visual communication that subtly influence readers’ responses and reactions to how persons are portrayed. Aune draws on another of Scott McCloud‘s thesis about comic communication: the relationship between levels of abstraction and reader identification.
(Below: Continuum of faces from Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud.)
McCloud hypothesizes that the more cartoonish or abstract the face, the more readers are likely to identify with it. An image that contains only symbols of human likeness that are nearly universal to any individual (like those to the right of McCloud’s continuum above) allow the reader to see themselves in any character portrayed on the page. The more highly specific, detailed, or “realistic” the image, the harder it is for a reader to identify, says McCloud. The visage on the left of McCloud’s continuum highlights those elements of the individual’s likeness that are particular, and perhaps markedly different from, the reader.
This reminded me of our conversation about Toufic El Rassi’s “Arab in America” and the complexities that readers in our book group felt when viewing the author’s self depictions.
Are any of these insights relevant to Sarah Glidden’s “How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less”? As an American traveler in Israel, how does Glidden feel both as an insider and outsider?
How many comics or graphic novels explore travel experiences in the Middle East? How might they be compared or contrasted?
For our last book group session members were encouraged to choose their own texts. For those who did not read Sarah Glidden’s work, how might you comment on the ways in which the themes of “Self” and “Other” were present in the works that you read, or might be present for students engaging with the book?
What challenges or opportunities do you think graphic media presents for students to encounter identities and experiences that may feel alien to their own? Is the visual element of this media a hindrance or a help? Or both?
