Studying the everyday: comics
A Macdonald
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton
This subject will engage students in close reading of a number of bandes dessinées of album length. The cartoon form will be taken as one inviting careful attention to linguistic register choices, narrative structures, and the rhetoric of graphics, among other textual processes. The subject will seek to develop skills in the reading of these interacting systems. This will involve attention to written versions of oral French (slang and region-specific idioms), an introduction to semiotics of the visual, and an alertness to the discursive implications of narrative devices.
Assessment
Two essays (2000 words): 40% each * Seminar presentation (1000 words): 20%
Prescribed texts
The following bandes dessinées (cartoon albums) will be studied:
Baru Le chemin de l'Amérique Albin Michel
Benoit T Berceuse électrique Casterman
Stassen Le bar du vieux Français 2 Dupuis