This paper will be a close analysis of a graphic novel or comic and will draw on some of the critical, theoretical, and/or analytical conversations we have had in class. In 5-6 pages double-spaced Times New Roman size 12 font, your paper must advance a focused analysis of your choice of one scene or set of panels in, Fun Home, Maus I, or The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt.Prompts (CHOOSE ONE):1. How does this graphic novel’s use of the spatial dimensions of its panels and/or pages shape the narrative? At what scale are the spaces in this graphic novel depicted, and how do its spatial dimensions inflect the pace, affect, and/or themes of its narrative? Analyze this graphic novel’s use or depiction of space in one scene or set of panels.2. Analyze one scene or set of panels within the context of “Narrating History.” Many of the graphic novels we have read so far deal with vacancies in the historical record and the unknowable aspects of a given story. How does the graphic novel narrate or represent epistemological limits (i.e., the limits of what can be known)? How does uncertainty shape the narrative of the graphic novel?Your paper must:▫ Include an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.▫ Foreground your own thesis statement (1-3 sentences) in the introduction of the paper.▫ Offer an original, thoughtful, and nuanced analysis of a scene or set of panels in the graphic novel. This means that your paper need not account for the graphic novel as a whole; this is not meant to be a comprehensive or exhaustive analysis of the novel. Instead, you must focus closely on one scene or set of panels. You may devote some time to contextualizing the scene or panels, but summary should be included only to the extent that it directly connects to or supports your analysis.▫ Be supported with evidence from and analysis of the visual and spatial elements of the graphic novel. You certainly may use as much textual and linguistic evidence as you like, but you must also incorporate some evidence from the visual or spatial elements of the graphic novel.▫ Clearly and responsibly credit any outside sources, including statements by the artists, if you choose to use them in generating your own analysis.▫ Include robust transitions between ideas as well as clear topic sentences. These will help to organize the ideas and structure the argument of the paper.Tips:• Your thesis should be foregrounded in the first paragraph of the paper and each subsequent paragraph should clearly advance, build on, or develop the argument you set out in the thesis.• A narrow, focused central argument will be most effective in this paper. For example, a broad claim about popular culture would be difficult to support, since popular culture is an enormous and varied entity. Instead, a more focused claim about how or why a specific repeated image or linguistic pattern accomplishes its effect in the music video could be more effectively argued in this paper.
