Jewish Graphic Novels
NEJS 176b
Spring, 2015
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 1:00-1:50 p.m.
Lown 202
Professor E. Kellman
From 1930s newspaper strips to contemporary, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic literature, comics have a history of attracting Jewish talent and innovation. Artists like Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman helped create the genre widely known today as the “graphic novel,” which emerged from a low-brow, commercial tradition in popular culture. Appealing to literary, artistic, commercial, and popular sensibilities, comics push formal and generic boundaries. Blurringboundaries between“high” and “low” art, and functioning both as works of literature andvisual art, they offer multidimensionalJewishperspectives on gender, history and culture. By allowing text and image to interact and diverge, graphic novels lend themselves to the expression ofthe multilayered nature of Jewish history and identity, offering nuanced iterations of Jews’ experiences of theology, community, family, selfhood, gender and sexuality across time and space.
Focusing on a hybrid literary form with its own compelling Jewish history, this course offers exposure to an array of questions posed in the field of modern Jewish literature and culture, as well as an opportunity to develop critical reading and writing skills applicable both to literary analysis and to the study of popular and material culture. The course will begin with a survey of the history of Jewish artists’ involvement in the production of comics and graphic narratives, followed by a unit devoted to formal reading methods and critical approaches to the genre. Organized thematically, the reading list also draws from a variety of sub-genres in which Jewish comics artists are working: the graphic novel, the short story, historical non-fiction, memoir, biography, documentary, and the comics strip. The works included offer interpretations ofchanging gender roles,immigration, American and European acculturation,nationalism, religion and mysticism, Israeli responses to trauma, and the Holocaust and its aftermath.
Using relevant gender theory, the course will explore how graphic novels are suited to creatively handle the historical reconfiguration of Jewish gender identities and the individual experience of gender for the Jewish self across challenging and shifting contexts. Gender-informed historians will help us study the roles of women across Jewish time and space, as well as the limitations placed on their individual opportunities and experiences, as expressed in the visual frame of comics. Scholars of masculinity will help us understand the evolving and competing models of manhood, nationalism, and Jewish identity from early modern Europe to contemporary America and Israel, as Jews creatively reshaped their masculine image. Performance and queer theory will inform our reading of the gendered self as a constructed narrative subject to change, post-traumatic disorganization, and the pressures of social systems.
Structured around primary works, class meetings will be discussion-based, beginning with brief lectures to contextualize each work and provide relevant history. In addition to the primary works, students will be assigned secondary readings drawn from contemporary scholarship in the field.
(This course is cross-listed as an elective with WGS (Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program)
Introduction
January 12:
● Derek Parker Royal: “Jewish Comics; Or, Visualizing Current Jewish Narrative” Shofar 29:2 (2011): pp. 1-12. (LATTE)
● Course overview
Reading Approaches
Weeks 1 and 2 (3 sessions)
January 14
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics, chapter 1 (1993). (LATTE)
● Hillary Chute: “Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative” PMLA (2008): pp. 452-457. (LATTE)
● (optional) Katherine Roeder: “Looking High and Low at Comic Art” American Art 22:1 (2008): pp. 2-9. (LATTE)
January 15
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics, chapters 2 and 3 (1993).
Powerpoint slideshow: examples from course syllabus and other graphic narratives
January 21
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics, chapters 4, 5 and 6 (1993).
Powerpoint slideshow: examples from course syllabus and other graphic narratives
Erin McGlothlin: “Comics Terminology.” (LATTE)
Historical Overview: From Male Adventures to Marginal Voices
Weeks 2, 3, 4 and 5 (8 sessions)
January 22 and 26
The Golden Age of Mainstream Comics and American Universalism
● Danny Fingeroth: Disguised As Clark Kent. 2007. Introduction and Chapters 1-4 pp. 23-67. (LATTE)
● Gloria Steinem: “Wonder Woman” in The Superhero Reader, Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester, eds. (2013) pp. 203-210. (LATTE)
● Jennifer K. Stuller: “Second-wave Feminism in the Pages of Lois Lane,” in Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods, Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, eds. (2012) pp. 235-251. (LATTE)
● Excerpts from Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” (1940- ) in The Best of the Spirit and Will Eisner's The Spirit archives, anthologies published by DC Comics (LATTE)
● Excerpts from “Superman” comics, published by National Allied Publications and DC Comics (1938- ) “Captain America” comics, published by Marvel Comics (1941- ) and “Wonder Woman” comics, published by DC Comics (1941- ) (LATTE)
January 28
Celebrating Difference
● Arie Kaplan: “Outsider Heroes” (chapter 15) in From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008) pp. 111-115. 230 (Online Access, Brandeis Library)
● Cheryl Alexander Malcolm, “Witness, Trauma, and Remembrance: Holocaust Representation and X-Men Comics, in The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, Samantha Baskind and Ranan Omer-Sherman, eds., 2008: pp. 144-162. (LATTE)
● Excerpts from “X-Men” comics published by Marvel Comics (1963- ) and “X-Men” issue # 14 (LATTE)
January 29
Underground Comix
● Excerpts from Mad Magazine (1952- ) and its influence on the underground (LATTE)
● Arie Kaplan: “Notes from the Underground” (chapter 18) in From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008), pp. 137-150, and “New Trends and Innocent Seducers” in From Krakow to Krypton, pp. 72-74 (Online Access, Brandeis Library)
● R. Crumb on Kurtzman (LATTE)
● Art Spiegelman on Kurtzman (LATTE)
● Excerpts from R. Crumb’s “Mr. Natural” comics (LATTE)
February 2 and 4
Alternative Comics
● Hillary Chute: “Women, Comics, and the Risk of Representation” in Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics (2010) (LATTE)
● Joseph Witek: “Justin Green: Autobiography Meets the Comics,” in Graphic Subjects, Michael A. Chaney, ed., 2011. pp. 227-230 (Online Access, Brandeis Library).
● Excerpts from Justin Green: Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary (1972) and introduction by Art Spiegelman in reprinted edition (LATTE)
● Excerpts from R. Crumb and Harvey Pekar: Bob and Harv’s Comics (1996- ) (LATTE)
February 5
Early Spiegelman
● Erin McGlothlin: “Art Spiegelman and AutobioGRAPHICal Re-Vision” in Graphic Subjects, Michael A. Chaney, ed., 2011. pp. 45-50. (Online Access, Brandeis Library).
● Bella Brodzki: “Looking for Art in Young Spiegelman” in Graphic Subjects, Michael A. Chaney, ed., 2011. pp. 51-58. (Online Access, Brandeis Library).
● Excerpts from Art Spiegelman: Breakdowns: portrait of the artist as a young %@... (1977) (LATTE)
● Examples from R. Crumb: Funny Aminals (1972), including Art Spiegelman’s early version of Maus (LATTE)
February 9
The Early Graphic Novel
● Will Eisner: “A Contract with God,” in A Contract with God (1989) (LATTE)
● Laurence Roth: “Drawing Contracts: Will Eisner’s Legacy” in Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” A. David Lewis and Christine Hoff Kraemer, eds. (2010), pp. 44-61. (LATTE)
● Arie Kaplan: “From Novel Graphics to Graphic Novels” (chapter 19) in From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008) (Online Access, Brandeis Library)
Immigration/Acculturation/Otherness: Jewish Gender Crosses Space and Time
Weeks 5, 6 and 7 (6 sessions)
February 11 and 12
● Will Eisner: A Life Force (1988).
● Jeremy Dauber, “Comic Books, Tragic Stories: Will Eisner’s American Jewish History,” in The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, Samantha Baskind and Ranan Omer-Sherman, eds.,2008: pp. 22-32. (LATTE)
February 23
* A Bintel Brief: sixty years of letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward, (introduction by Isaac Metzker), pp. 7-17 (1971) (LATTE)
* Excerpts from Liana Finck: A Bintel brief: Love and Longing in Old New York (2014) (LATTE)
* The Underworld (Di untervelt) Yiddish graphic serial (1911) (LATTE)
● Ruth Rosen: The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America 1900-1918 (1982): pp. 1-14. (LATTE)
February 25 and 26
● Leela Corman: Unterzakhn (2012)
● Judith Butler: “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: an Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” Theatre Journal 40, no.4 pp. 519-531) (LATTE)
● Timothy J. Gilfoyle: “White Slaves and Kept Women” in City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution and the Commercialization of Sex 1790-1920 (1992), pp. 270-297. (LATTE)
March 2
● Ronald Schechter and Liz Clarke: Mendoza the Jew: Boxing, Manliness, and Nationalism: a Graphic History (2014). (EXCERPTS) (LATTE)
● George Mosse: "The Countertype" in The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (1996) (LATTE)
Holocaust and Intergenerational Memory: The Post-Traumatic Family
Weeks 7, 8, 9 and 10 (10 sessions)
March 4 and 5
● Linda Hutcheon: “Postmodern Provocation: History and ‘Graphic’ Literature” La Torre (Revista de la Universidad de Puerto Rico) 2:4-5 (1997): pp. 299-308. (LATTE)
● Art Spiegelman: Maus I (1986).
March 9
● Marianne Hirsch: “Mourning and Postmemory” in Graphic Subjects, Michael A. Chaney, ed., 2011. pp. 17-44. (LATTE)
March 11 and 12
● Art Spiegelman: Maus II (1991).
● Hillary Chute: “‘The Shadow of a Past Time’: History and Graphic Representation in Maus” Twentieth Century Literature 52:2 (2006): pp. 199-230. (LATTE)
March 16
● Lisa Naomi Mulman: “A Tale of Two Mice: Graphic Representations of the Jew in Holocaust Narrative.” in The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, Samantha Baskind and Ranan Omer-Sherman, eds., 2008: pp. 85-93. (LATTE)
● Excerpts from Art Spiegelman: Metamaus (2011) (LATTE)
March 18 and 19
● Miriam Katin: We Are On Our Own (2006)
● Samantha Baskind: “A Conversation with Miriam Katin,” in The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, Samantha Baskind and Ranan Omer-Sherman, eds. 2008: pp. 237-243. (LATTE)
March 23 and 25
● Rutu Modan: The Property (2013).
● Anat Rosenberg: “Holocaust Graphic Novels Give Israelis a Way To Connect to a Past Not Quite Theirs,” Tablet Magazine (July 2013). (LATTE)
● Alex Dueben: “Rutu Modan Explores Post-WWI Poland in The Property,”
Comic Book Resources: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48203
● Michel Kichka: Second Generation (2014). (EXCERPTS) (LATTE)
Divided Selves: Jews in Search of Coherent Identity
Weeks 10, 11, and 12 (7 sessions)
March 26
● Sylvia Fishman and Daniel Parmer: Matrilineal Ascent/Patrilineal Descent: the Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life, pp. 12-20. (LATTE)
March 30 and April 1
● Joann Sfar: The Rabbi’s Cat I (2005).
● Paul Eisenstein: “Imperfect Masters: Rabbinic Authority in Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat” in The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, Samantha Baskind and Ranan Omer-Sherman, eds. 2008: pp. 163-180. (LATTE)
● Darby Orcutt: “Comics and Religion: Theoretical Connections,” in Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” A. David Lewis and Christine Hoff Kraemer, eds. (2010), pp. 93-106. (LATTE)
● Antennae Issue 16 Introduction pp. 3-6 (LATTE)
April 2 and 13
● Franz Kafka: “The Hunger Artist” (1922) (LATTE)
● “The Hunger Artist” in R. Crumb’s Kafka (2004) (LATTE)
● Franz Kafka: “The Judgment” (1912) (LATTE)
● “The Judgment” in R. Crumb’s Kafka (2004) (LATTE)
● Daniel Boyarin: “ Introduction” in Unheroic Conduct: the Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (1997) (LATTE)
April 15 and 16
● Sarah Glidden: How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (2011)
● Eli Valley: “Stanislaus and Cecilia, Rome’s Finest Progressives” (EV Comics website: http://www.evcomics.com)
● Interview with Eli Valley: http://classic.tcj.com/interviews/the-eli-valley-interview/
Zionist Ideals Meet Gendered Bodies
Weeks 13 (3 sessions)
April 20 and 22
● Ari Folman and David Polonsky: Waltz with Bashir (2009).
● Raz Yosef: "The Zionist Body Master Narrative" in Beyond Flesh: Queer Masculinities and Nationalism in Israeli Cinema (2004). (LATTE)
● Todd Presner:"The Rhetoric of Regeneration: 'Clear Heads, Solid Stomachs, and Hard Muscles" in Muscular Judaism: the Jewish body and the politics of regeneration (2007). (LATTE)
April 23
● Rutu Modan: Exit Wounds (2007). (EXCERPTS) (LATTE)
April 27
Concluding discussion
Requirements and Grading Criteria
Requirements for undergraduate students
1. Active participation in class. The course is taught as a seminar. You are expected to do all reading assignments in advance and to participate in online and class discussions. In addition to reading books and articles, you will frequently be assigned to view Powerpoint slideshows of excerpts from comic books and graphic novels. You will access these Powerpoints via LATTE. Regular attendance in class is a must.
2. Written work. Undergraduates will write three 6-8 page papers with a choice of topics. Students will complete a close reading exercise prior to writing the first paper.
Grading
Class participation: 25%
Close reading exercise: 15%
Paper #1: 20%
Paper #2: 20%
Paper #3: 20%
Requirements for graduate students
Graduate students will be assigned one 20-25 page research paper on a topic to be developed in consultation with the professor. Additional secondary readings and a weekly discussion section will be offered for graduate students.
Course books are available to purchase at the Brandeis Bookstore. All course books will also be available at the reserve desk in Goldfarb Library.
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics (1993)
Leela Corman: Unterzakhn (2012)
Will Eisner: A Life Force (1988)
Ari Folman and David Polonsky: Waltz with Bashir (2009)
Miriam Katin: We Are On Our Own (2006)
Sarah Glidden: How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (2011)
Rutu Modan: The Property (2013)
Joann Sfar: The Rabbi’s Cat I (2005)
Art Spiegelman: Maus I (1986)
Art Spiegelman: Maus II (1991)