trauma comics syllabus

8/10/2019 Trauma Comics Syllabus

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Class Title: Sights of Trauma in Alternative American Comics

Class Instructor: Lect. dr. Mihaela Precup

Class Description:

This class is both an introduction to trauma theory and alternative American comics, with afocus on autobiographical American comics. Trauma theory is a field that became prominent in

the academia relatively recently, i.e. in the early 1990s. It started in conversation with Freuds

work on traumatic neurosis, which began after he consulted patients who had returned from theFirst World War. After the Second World War, the Holocaust posed new challenges of

representation and conceptualization of trauma. In the United States, it was the Vietnam War in

particular that caused heightened interest in trauma in psychiatric circles. In the academic

community, post-structuralist theoretician Cathy Caruth (Unclaimed Experience, 1996) proposedthat trauma is an event that uniquely disturbs systems of representation, thus making it difficult

for the subject to either assign meaning to or represent the traumatic event. Her assumption was

later problematized by a number of theoreticians (Ruth Leys, Susannah Radstone etc.), as well as

by a large body of work by creators who attempted to solve the conundrum of traumaticrepresentation. In this class, we will be discussing both individual and group trauma by departing

from Freud and Caruths work and discussing theoreticians whose work on memory and traumaparticipate in the debate on the pathological nature of trauma, the truth-value of testimonies, and

what it means to speak about PTSD, a condition that displays a heterogenous range of symptoms.

Our primary sources for this class will be alternative American comics, most of them

autobiographical, published mainly in the last two decades. For this purpose, the class will also

provide an introduction to American alternative comics, starting from their beginnings in

underground tradition of the 1960s and up to the present moment. Well be looking at comicbook authors who approach both individual trauma (stemming from illness, personal loss, abuse

etc.) and collective traumas (such as World War II, the Holocaust, the AIDS crisis, homophobia)such as Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Carol Tyler etc.

Nota Bene: Unfortunately, this class cannot also focus on trauma in mainstream Americancomics, but if you are able to contribute with information from, say, superhero comics, you

are very welcome to do so during class discussions.

Class Requirements:

Every student will be asked to participate in at least one round-table discussion on the assigned

readings (please see below). There will be a final oral exam. Extra points will be awarded forexcellent class participation.

Class Bibliography

All starred texts are comics. The ones marked [e-text] will be transferred to you. The ones

marked [coursepack] will be photocopied and left for you in Room 4 (Mon-Fri; 10am-4pm). Thecoursepack will be ready on October 15. In order to read comics on your computer, you need to

download the program CDisplay. Its free.


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Class 1. Introduction. Grading, Requirements etc.

Class 2. Trauma Theory. An Introduction. - lecture

Readings:

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle(1920; 1961) 3-17 [e-text]

Caruth, Cathy. Introduction: The Wound and the Voice in Caruth, Cathy.Unclaimed

Experience. Trauma, Narrative, and History. (1996) [1-9] [e-text]

Craps, Stef. The Empire of Trauma inPostcolonial Witnessing. Trauma out of Bounds

(2013) [coursepack]

Class 3. Comics and Graphic Narratives. The Beginnings of American Comics for Adults. - lecture

Readings:

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. 2-53 [e-text]

McGrath, Charles. Not Funnies.NY Times, July 11, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11GRAPHIC.html?pagewanted=all

Class 4. The Autobiographical Tradition in American Underground Comicslecture

Readings:

Chute, Hillary and Marianne DeKoven. Introduction: Graphic Narrative (2006) 767-782

[e-text]

Gardner, Jared. Autobiographys Biography. (2008) [e-text]

Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson. The Visual-Verbal-Virtual Contexts of Life Narrative in

Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson.Reading Autobiography(2010) 167-190 [coursepack]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11GRAPHIC.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11GRAPHIC.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/11GRAPHIC.html?pagewanted=all


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Class 5. Trauma and Postmemory in Autobiographical Comics. Art Spiegelmans Maus.

Readings:

Hirsch, Marianne. Mourning and Postmemory in Hirsch, Marianne.Family Frames. (1997) 17-

40 [coursepack]

*Spiegelman, Art.Maus[e-text; also available in Room 4]

Class 6. Mourning and Photography. Alison Bechdels Fun H ome(2006)

Readings:

Barthes, Roland. From Camera Lucida.(1980) 25-75 [coursepack]

Leader, Darian. The New Black. Mourning, Melancholia, and Depression (2009) 24-59

[coursepack]

*Bechdel, Alison.Fun Home. (2006) [e-text]

Class 7. Gendering (Unremembered) Trauma. Carol Tyler and Miriam Katin.

Readings:

Chute, Hillary. Introduction: Women, Comics, and the Risk of Representation. Graphic

Women. (2010) 1-27 [coursepack]

*Katin, Miriam. We Are on Our Own.(2006) [coursepack]

*Tyler, Carol. Youll Never Know(2009, 2010, 2011) [it will be introduced in class]

Class 8. No Class.

Class 9. Gendering (Immigrant) Trauma. Nina Bunjevac.

Readings:

Herman, Judith. A Forgotten HistoryTrauma and Recovery(1992) 4-23 [e-text]

*Bunjevac, Nina.Heartless(2012) [e-text]


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Class 10. AIDS and the Representation of Collective and Individual Trauma. David

Wojnarowicz.

Readings:

Sturken, Marita. AIDS and the Politics of Representation from Tangled Memories145-

181 [coursepack]

Cvetkovich, Anne. The Everyday Life of Queer Trauma in Cvetkovich, Anne.An

Archive of Feelings(2003) 15-47 [e-text]

*Wojnarowicz, David. 7 Miles a Second(1996) [coursepack]

Class 11. Postcolonial Trauma

Readings:

Rothberg, Michael. Introduction in Rothberg, Michael.Multidirectional Memory.(2009) 1-33[e-text]

Craps, Stef. The Trauma of Empire in Craps, Stef.Postcolonial Witnessing(2013) [e-

text]

*Gene Luen Yang.American Born Chinese(2008) [e-text]

Class 12. 9/11 as a Site of Trauma. Alissa Torres and Sungyoon Chois Ameri can Widow

(2008)

Readings:

Hirsch, Marianne. I Took Pictures: September 2001 and Beyond in Greenberg, Judith.

Trauma at Home. After 9/11(2003) 69-86 [e-text]

*Torres, Alissa and Sungyoon Choi.American Widow (2006) [e-text]

trauma comics syllabus

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