Certain comics have come under fire for their insensitive depictions of different racial groups and/or women. Compare and contrast two (potentially) problematic representational trends. Some examples include Wonder Woman and Nelvana of the Northern Lights as female wartime superheroines; the use of racial caricatures in propaganda, comix, and contemporary political cartoons; or sexualized depictions of women in comix and superhero comics. How does the figure of the author (e.g. as a white person depicting people of colour; as a man depicting women, or vice versa) contribute to the comics’ politics?

 

Preliminary Thesis/Bibliography: The final essay has been divided into three stages in order to demonstrate the academic writing process step-by-step. Essay Topics can be found here. When choosing your essay topic, make sure that you note what specific comics you’ll be writing about. (Writing about Batman as a character or comix as a movement is not specific enough.) After doing some quality research (e.g., scholarly journals, academic books, and other critical sources; not blogs, Wikipedia, and the like), you should be able to refine your perspective on your topic enough to develop a preliminary thesis, which is effectively an answer to your research question. Your thesis statement should be no longer than one sentence, and your bibliography should not be much longer than a page. For help developing your argument, I encourage you to visit the university’s Writing Centre (by appointment). If you’re having difficulty locating sources, start with the texts referenced in the lessons, and then look at their bibliographies. Presto: you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of academic research! All bibliographic entries should be fully cited according to MLA style, the details of which can be found at this link: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Citation is an exact science, and should be accurate to the character. Improper citations will be interpreted by your instructor as a sign that you don’t read instructions closely. This assignment is only worth 5% of your final grade, in order to emphasize that writing is a process; you shouldn’t expect your work to be perfect and finalized at this early stage. You will submit your assignment to the course Dropbox. Further instructions for submission will be provided in lesson 7. This assignment will be assessed based on the rubric below.

 

Exemplary Sufficient Inadequate

Thesis The argument is stated clearly, demonstrates research and thoughtful engagement with the subject The argument is stated clearly, but lacking in originality The thesis is not (sufficiently) argumentative and demonstrates no research or original insight

Bibliography At least six scholarly sources, all of which are clearly relevant to the paper topic/thesis

 

All citations are complete and accurate Fewer than six scholarly sources, all of which are clearly relevant to the paper topic/thesis

 

Some superficial citational errors Fewer than four scholarly sources, or sources whose relevance to the paper topic/thesis is not clear

 

Serious citational errors

Introduction: The introduction is the single most important paragraph of the undergraduate essay. It is your first opportunity to impress (or disappoint, or confuse) your reader. Don’t begin your essay with some vague generalization (e.g. Since the dawn of time€¦ or Webster’s Dictionary defines comics’ as€¦); instead, begin with your exact topic! By the end of the first sentence or two, you should have narrowed your topic down for the reader so that s/he knows what to expect from the rest of the paper: not just comics, or this particular comic, or even some specific issue that you’ve noted in this particular comic but rather your unique perspective, grounded in research, on some specific issue that you’ve noted in this particular comic. Once you have your first few sentences, put your thesis at the bottom of the page. Now all you have to do is figure out how to fill in the space between these sentences. (One strategy is to set your thesis up as a response or corrective to something else. E.g. X argues this, but in fact, the evidence supports this other conclusion. This can lead into your thesis.) Unless you received an A+ on the previous assignment, you should take this opportunity to revise and improve your preliminary thesis based on the feedback you received and additional research that you’ve performed. Your introduction should be a single paragraph, and certainly less than one page. The assignment is worth 5% of your final grade and will be assessed based on the rubric below. You will submit your assignment to the course Dropbox. Further instructions for submission will be provided in lesson 9.

 

Exemplary Sufficient Inadequate

Engagement with topic The subject and the author’s position on it are made immediately clear and sustained throughout The subject and the author’s position on it are made clear and are sustained throughout with few diversions The subject is not made clear and/or the author offers no point-of-view

Thesis The argument is stated clearly, demonstrates research and thoughtful engagement with the subject, as well as refinement (where necessary) from the previous submitted version The argument is stated clearly, but lacking in originality

 

The thesis has been refined slightly based on the feedback given to the previous submitted version The thesis is not (sufficiently) argumentative and demonstrates no research or original insight

 

Little or no attempt has been made to incorporate instructor feedback

Clarity of expression Meaning is perfectly clear, free of spelling or grammatical mistakes

 

Writing follows a clear logical flow Meaning is mostly clear, despite some superficial mistakes

 

Writing mostly follows a clear logical flow Meaning is unclear, marred by spelling and grammatical errors

 

Writing does not have any logical flow

Final Essay: Your final essay should reflect and build upon all of the work that you’ve done to this point. Don’t ignore the commentary that you’ve received from your instructor on each piece of work you’ve handed in. If your introduction was problematic, don’t stick to what you handed in earlier: change it for the better! Your essay should demonstrate your learning curve as you’ve made mistakes and learned from them. Good essays are not written, they are re-written. Your essay should be 5-6 pages, contain no spelling or grammatical mistakes, cite all sources properly and consistently, and be formatted according to MLA style. Your paper should have a title (Final Essay is not an acceptable title), but no title page. This website features an example of the first page of an MLA formatted essay, which you should follow exactly: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Incorrect formatting will be interpreted by your instructor as a sign that you don’t read instructions closely. Your essay will be assessed on the merits of its argument, its clarity, its level of engagement with the material (both primary and secondary sources), and its technical proficiency (i.e., adherence to MLA format, correct spelling and grammar, etc.). This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade and will be assessed according to the rubric below. You will submit your assignment to the course Dropbox. Further instructions for submission will be included in lesson 12.

 

Exemplary Sufficient Inadequate

Engagement with topic The subject and the author’s position on it are made immediately clear and sustained throughout The subject and the author’s position on it are made clear and are sustained throughout with few diversions The subject is not made clear and/or the author offers no point-of-view

Thesis The argument is stated clearly, demonstrates research and thoughtful engagement with the subject, as well as refinement (where necessary) from the previous submitted versions The argument is stated clearly, but lacking in originality

 

The thesis has been refined slightly based on the feedback given to the previous submitted versions The thesis is not (sufficiently) argumentative and demonstrates no research or original insight

 

Little or no attempt has been made to incorporate instructor feedback

Clarity of expression Meaning is perfectly clear, free of spelling or grammatical mistakes

 

Writing follows a clear logical flow Meaning is mostly clear, despite some superficial mistakes

 

Writing mostly follows a clear logical flow Meaning is unclear, marred by spelling and grammatical errors

 

Writing does not have any logical flow

Bibliography At least six scholarly sources, all of which are clearly relevant to the paper topic/thesis

 

All citations are complete and accurate Fewer than six scholarly sources, all of which are clearly relevant to the paper topic/thesis

 

Some superficial citational errors Fewer than four scholarly sources, or sources whose relevance to the paper topic/thesis is not clear

 

Serious citational errors

 

 

Essay Topics

For all topics, feel free to explore the wider world of comics€”by no means should you limit yourself to the specific titles mentioned on the syllabus. If you’d like suggestions, feel free to ask your classmates on the discussion board or email your instructor directly.

Regardless of the topic you choose, you’ll be expected to advance your argument using a combination of primary sources (i.e., the comics themselves) and secondary sources (i.e., scholarship about comics and/or other relevant scholarly discourses). In both cases, however, you won’t merely be repeating what the comics/other scholars have said, but rather will be offering your own insights on these texts. Don’t rely too heavily on quotations. You have your own ideas€”have confidence in them!

You’ll note that each topic includes a question. Your thesis statement€”the central claim that you spend your entire essay demonstrating to be true using evidence and argumentation€”will be your answer to this question.

Without further ado, the topics€¦

Nationalism

Comics have long been associated with advancing nationalist agendas, be it in the form of wartime propaganda or nationalistic superheroes. Different genres and nations, however, construct national identity in radically different ways. Compare and contrast how national identity is constructed in either two comics from the same nation, or two comics from different nations. What elements of national identity are emphasized and how?

Race and Gender

Certain comics have come under fire for their insensitive depictions of different racial groups and/or women. Compare and contrast two (potentially) problematic representational trends. Some examples include Wonder Woman and Nelvana of the Northern Lights as female wartime superheroines; the use of racial caricatures in propaganda, comix, and contemporary political cartoons; or sexualized depictions of women in comix and superhero comics. How does the figure of the author (e.g. as a white person depicting people of colour; as a man depicting women, or vice versa) contribute to the comics’ politics?

Genre

Different genres have dominated fictional comics at different periods, including superheroes, westerns, romance, and horror. Compare and contrast two comics from the same genre but different historical periods. How do the representations differ, and how do the differing cultural contexts account for these differences?

Graphic Memoir

Beginning with the countercultural comix of the 1960s, the comics medium became a tool for representing the inner life and true experiences of their authors. Compare and contrast two autobiographical comics narratives. What visual and narrative strategies do they employ, and how do the results differ in their relationship to truth and authenticity?

Adaptation

Stories that begin as comics are often targeted for adaptation in other media. Compare and contrast the visual style, narrative approach, or theme found in two versions of the same story in different media (e.g., comics, film, literature, video games, etc.). How do the strategies employed in each version reflect the differences of the two media?

(NOTE: If you want to do something superhero-themed for this topic, you need to be very specific. Batman isn’t a story, but rather a character with decades of history and hundreds of individual stories. You need to centre your analysis on a story that exists in two media, not just a character.)

Alternative Comics

Alternative comics as a movement is very self-conscious of the history of the medium. Explore the relationship between an alternative comics text and a previous tradition (e.g., Chris Ware’s work to newspaper strips, Daniel Clowes’ work to comix, Art Spiegelman’s Maus to funny animal comics, etc.), comparing and contrasting their usage of similar images and techniques. How does the earlier comics tradition manifest in alternative comics, and to what purpose?