Outside the Box: Space and Time in Graphic Novels [6-weeks, $250 Suggested]

Instructor: Hollis | Mondays May 16-23 and June 6-27 [No Class on Memorial Day, May 30] | 7:00-9:00 PM ET

In Unflattening, Nick Sousanis argues that “not only space, but time and experience too, have been put in boxes” by capitalism, and by extension, other structures that govern our lives such as patriarchy and white supremacy. Sousanis’s text is the first dissertation written on the graphic novel and it helps us understand how graphic novels use literal boxes to both illustrate and break from these restrictions by playing with perspective, space, and time on the page. In this course, we will examine how the graphic novel can challenge traditional approaches to narrative and thus expand how we perceive the world. Paradoxically, while graphic novels appear as flat images and words on a page, that very combination of words and images creates new ways of experiencing the world that can be revolutionary in breaking the narrow boxes we are often encouraged to live in.

We will examine space and time in several graphic novels, thinking about these concepts through both the content and form of the works we will study. We will also explore space and time thematically through such works as Here, which examines the same corner of a room over a long space of time or Fun Home, which explores memory through the lens of literature.

The course will include a variety of genres in the form of graphic novels, including–but not limited to–memoirs, superhero stories, short stories, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition to Here, Unflattening, and Fun Home, texts may include Chris Ware’s Building Stories, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Lynda Barry’s 100 Demons, and Ebony Flowers’s Hot Comb.
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We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.

If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.