Jennifer Beattie, Arts and Sciences Tri-County Technical College Pendleton, SC

 Me  “I don’t read comic books!”  Neil Gaiman  “All of a sudden I felt like someone who'd been informed that she wasn't actually a hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening."  Daniel Raeburn  "the literary equivalent of calling a garbage man a 'sanitation engineer.'"

 Is graphic novel, then, just a euphemism for comic book, or is it something else altogether?  Does the graphic novel have literary merit, or is it just lowbrow, popular fiction?  Does it belong in academic library collections, in college literature classrooms?

 Definition  a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format.  suggests a complete story that has a beginning, middle and end, as opposed to an ongoing series.  implies a story that is outside the genres commonly associated with comic books, or that deals with more mature themes  History…

from Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake ( )

Image from the 1934 graphic novel Une semaine de bonté ("A Week of Kindness") by Max Ernst

Classics Illustrated Albert Kanter Confessions Illustrated 1956

 Debatable  Littera = letters  Art  Evolving definition  Standards of literary value change over time  “imaginative works of exceptional quality”  “what gets taught in schools and colleges”  “a particular kind of attention to language”

 Aristotle: mimesis, or imitation of life  The Secondary World Theory  The creation mirrors the author’s primary world, both are highly structured  Plot  Characters  Tone  Symbols  Conflict

 The Test of Time Theory  Aesthetics  Storytelling

 The literary canon  Agreed upon works that are important to read or study  Changes in last 40 years Expanded Diversified

Does the graphic novel fit these definitions? Does it deserve a place in the canon?