Humanities and Fine Arts 191HFA61 - FYS-GraphicNovel:Glimpse/Canon

This course is designed to introduce students to three foundational graphic novels from the canon, namely Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," Art Spiegelman's "Maus," and Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis." Using McCloud's work as a compass, students will explore "Maus" and "Persepolis" while asking some of the following questions: What are comics? What is a graphic novel? Which elements, taken in tandem, constitute a graphic novel? How has time been depicted spatially? How are the relationships between figures depicted visually? What is being told, and how does it relate to what the author wants to tell? Furthermore, students will learn to navigate and access relevant resources at W.E.B. DuBois Library as well as those at the UMass Amherst Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies.

Open to first-year Humanities and Fine Arts Exploratory Track students and first-year HFA Majors.