ENG 386: Bodies in Comics
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 12-1. Prerequisites: None. 4 credits.
Instructor: Prof. Elizabeth Wheeler, ewheeler@uoregon.edu, 541-346-3929
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10-11 am, 238 PLC
This course satisfies the Arts and Letters Group Requirement (1) and the Identity,
Pluralism, and Tolerance (IP) category of the Multicultural Requirement. It also
serves as a Social Models option for the Disability Studies Minor.
One could say that most comics are about the human body, in all its variations,
exaggerations, erotics, poses, powers, and vulnerabilities. This course examines the
human body in contemporary comics with particular attention to disability and gender.
We’ll look at three important comics genres: memoir, fantasy, and superheroes. With
each text we’ll also read about bodymind matters like body image, violence, trauma,
depression, Deaf culture, ADHD, and spinal cord injury—and we’ll see how comics
renders such profound matters through fantasy, visual metaphors, and good storytelling.
Popular texts like Hyperbole and a Half, Axe Cop, and Marvel superhero comics offer a
portal into the deepest questions of self and diversity. How can anyone communicate
the experience of isolation or despair to other people? How does the multigenerational
trauma of racism alter our definitions of disability? Is it possible to make disability cool
without falling back into gender stereotypes? Do visual representations of men and
women open up or hinder readers’ self-images? You will do some drawing in class and
as homework for this course. Your drawings will be judged not on their artistic talent but
on the degree they reflect an understanding of comics theory.
Required Books: Available at the Literary Duck and Knight Library Reserves.
Brosh, Allie. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms,
Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
Fraction, Aja, and Hollingsworth. Hawkeye # 19. New York: Marvel Comics, 2014.
Green, Katie. Lighter Than My Shadow. New York: Random House, 2013.
Love, Jeremy. Bayou: Volumes I and II. New York: DC Comics, 2011.
Nicolle, Ethan and Malachai. Axe Cop and Axe Cop 2: Bad Guy Earth. Milwaukie, OR:
Dark Horse Comics, 2011.
Ostrander, Yale, Stelfreeze, and Story. “Oracle Year One: Born of Hope.”
Batman Chronicles #5. New York: DC Comics, 1996. 1-18.
Simone, Gail, and Ed Benes. Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds. New York: DC Comics,
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2004.
Required Articles: Available on Canvas
Alaniz, José. “‘What Can We Ever Have to Fear From a Blind Man?!!’ Disability,
Daredevil, and Passing.” Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and
Beyond. Jackson: U Mississippi Press, 2015. 69-86.
Bahan, Benjamin. “Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race.” HDirksen L. Bauman, Ed., Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: U
Minnesota Press, 2007. 83-99.
Bogard, Billy Dean. Dark Vengeance. Unpublished comic, 2016.
Bordo, Susan. “Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture.”
Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: U California
Press, 2004.139-164.
Chute, Hilary L. “Introduction: Women, Comics, and the Risk of Representation.”
Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. New York: Columbia UP,
2010. 1-28.
Cocca, Carolyn. “Re-booting Barbara Gordon: Oracle, Batgirl, and Feminist Disability
Theories.” ImageText 7.4 (2014): n.p.
Derby, John. “The Use of Violent Video Games in U.S. Recruitment and Treatment of
Mental Disability Caused by War.” Disability Studies Quarterly 36.1 (2016): n.p.
hooks, bell. “Popular Culture: Media Masculinity.” The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity,
and Love. New York: Atria Books, 2003. 125-134.
Kuntze, Marlon. “Turning Literacy Inside Out.” H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Ed., Open Your
Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: U Minnesota Press, 2007. 146-157.
Langer, Lawrence. “Deep Memory: The Buried Self.” Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins
of Memory. New Haven: Yale U Press, 1991. 1-38. (2 sections; read both)
Masters, Christina. “Bodies of Technology: Cyborg Soldiers and Materialized
Masculinities.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 7.1 (2005): 112-132.
Mollow, Anna. “Disability Studies Gets Fat.” Hypatia 30.1 (2015): 199-216.
Squier, Susan. “So Long as They Grow Out of It: Comics, the Discourse of
Developmental Normalcy, and Disability.” The Journal of Medical Humanities 29 (2008):
71-88.
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Witted, Qiana. “Of Slaves and Other Swamp Things: Black Southern History as Comic
Book Horror.” Witted, Ed. Comics and the U.S. South. Jackson: U Mississippi Press,
2012. 187-213.
Required Film and Website Viewing
Ghobadi, Bahman, Director. Turtles Can Fly (2004). 138 minutes. For discussion on
Friday Week 5.
For discussion on Monday Week 10:
merryweatherblue, “I took my little brother (who falls on the autism spectrum) to see
Guardians of the Galaxy…” Just Keep Swimming Swimming Swimming. 13 August
2014: n.p. http://merryweatherblue.tumblr.com
Nowicke, Clint. “A Deaf Comic Geek’s Grateful Review of ‘Hawkeye’ #19.” Pop
Mythology 4 August 2014: n.p.http://www.popmythology.com/a-deaf-comic-geeksgrateful-review-of-hawkeye-19/
English Department Learning Outcomes
1. To develop the ability to read literary, visual, and cultural texts with discernment and
comprehension and with an understanding of their conventions.
2. To develop the ability to draw on relevant cultural and/or historical information to
situate texts within their cultural, political, and historical contexts.
3. To develop the ability to perform critical, formal analyses of literary, visual, and
cinematic texts.
4. To develop the ability to write focused, analytical essays in clear, grammatical prose.
5. To develop the ability to employ logic, creativity, and interpretive skills to produce
original, persuasive arguments.
6. To employ primary and/or secondary sources, with proper acknowledgment and
citation, as they contribute to a critical essay’s thesis.
Learning Outcomes Specific to this Course
1.To analyze the visual-verbal art form of comics with discernment and comprehension
and with an understanding of its conventions.
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2. To demonstrate understanding of the central concepts of disability studies.
3. To apply central concepts in gender theory to analysis of visual and verbal narratives.
4. To demonstrate understanding of the comics through one’s own artistic production.
5. To analyze the social construction of the human body in visual culture.
6. To apply theories of bodymind diversity to comics in written and drawn analysis and
discussion.
Assignments
For more information see Project Guidelines in the Supplemental Course
Materials.
25% Part I Graphic Memoir Essay, 3-4 pages, Due Friday Week 4. Develop your
own argument comparing how Allie Brosh and Katie Green represent their memories in
comics form. Please focus on specific formal elements of comics, such as panel
sequence, line, and artistic choices in representing the body. Please incorporate at least
one of the secondary sources.
30% Part II Fantasy Essay, 4-5 pages, Due Friday Week 7. Develop an argument
about one or more of the Part II comics, incorporating a) At least one of the assigned
secondary sources; and b) Close readings of words, pictures, and their interactions.
How can comics express the real life complexities of political conflict in the past or
present? What are the roles of gender?
35% Part III Superhero Essay, 5-6 pages, Due Friday Week 10. Develop an
argument about ability and disability in superhero comics and/or superhero fandom.
Please talk about more than one comic and include at least one primary and one
secondary source of your own discovery.
10% Attendance, Homework, and In-Class Work. These assignments may be
unannounced and include in-class drawing, writing, and group work on readings. Your
drawings will be judged not on their artistic talent but on the degree they reflect an
understanding of comics theory.
Course Schedule
Part I: Memoir
Week
4
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Monday Introduction
Wednesday Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half, pp. 1-98.
Friday Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half, pp. 99-227.
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Representing Disability Through Graphic Memoir
Monday Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half, pp. 228-369.
Wednesday Hilary L. Chute, “Introduction,” Graphic Women (28 pp.)
Friday Susan Squier, “So Long as They Grow Out of It.” (17 pp.)
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Body Image and Fat Studies
Monday Katie Green, Lighter Than My Shadow (516 pp.)
Wednesday Susan Bordo, “Anorexia Nervosa” from Unbearable Weight (25 pp.)
Friday Anna Mollow, “Disability Studies Gets Fat.” (17 pp.)
Part II: Fantasy
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High Tech Warfare and Deadly Prostheses
Monday Ethan and Malachai Nicolle, Axe Cop (144 pp.)
Wednesday Ethan and Malachai Nicolle, Axe Cop 2 (120 pp.)
Friday Paper 1 Due. Axe Cop 1 & 2 Lecture
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Monday Christina Masters. “Bodies of Technology.” (20 pp.)
Wednesday bell hooks, “Popular Culture: Media Masculinity.” (9 pp.)
John Derby, “The Use of Violent Video Games…” (approx.10 pp.)
Friday Watch Turtles Can Fly (138 min) on your own and discuss film in class
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Post-Traumatic Memory and Southern History
Monday Lecture on Trauma in Visual Media
Wednesday Jeremy Love, Bayou: Volume I (160 pp.)
Friday Jeremy Love, Bayou: Volume II (160 pp.)
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Monday Qiana Witted, “Of Slaves and Other Swamp Things” (26 pp.)
Wednesday Lawrence Langer, “Deep Memory” (38 pp.)
Friday Paper 2 Due. In class: Intro to superheroes with disabilities.
Part III: Superheroes
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Superhero in a Wheelchair
Monday Ostrander et al., “Oracle Year One: Born of Hope.” (18 pp.)
Wednesday Gail Simone and Ed Benes, Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds (144 pp.)
Friday Carolyn Cocca, “Re-booting Barbara Gordon” (approx. 9 pp.)
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Superhero Goes Deaf
Monday Fraction, Aja, and Hollingsworth, Hawkeye # 19 (32 pp.)
Wednesday Benjamin Bahan, “Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the
Human Race.” (16 pp.)
Friday Kuntze, Marlon. “Turning Literacy Inside Out.” (11 pp.)
José Alaniz, “‘What Can We Ever Have to Fear From a Blind Man?!!’”
(17
pp.)
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Superhero Fans with Disabilities
Monday Discussion of Clint Nowicke, “A Deaf Comic Geek’s Grateful Review of
‘Hawkeye’ 19.” (n.p) and merryweatherblue, “I took my little brother (who falls on
the autism spectrum) to see Guardians of the Galaxy…” (n.p) View websites
before class.
Wednesday Billy Dean Bogard, “Dark Vengeance” (6 pp.)
Lecture: Prosthetic Play and Superhero Fandom
Friday Paper 3 Due. Conclusions
VII. Course Policies
Disability. I am happy to support your success by providing the accommodations you
need, even if it’s late in the term. Official diagnosis and/or accommodation letter not
required. Please let me know by email or in person if there are aspects of the instruction
or design of this course that result in disability-related barriers to your participation.
Handy contacts: Accessible Education Center (formerly Disability Services) in 164
Oregon Hall at 541-346-1155 or uoaec@uoregon.edu .Counseling Center: 541-3463230; http://testing.uoregon.edu.
Participation. This discussion-oriented class depends upon your active participation in
the classroom. If problems interfere with your work or attendance, please let me know
immediately. I am no fan of mysterious disappearances.
Late Paper Policy: I accept only one late paper per term, so please use this option
wisely. “On time” for means posted to Canvas Assignments before class begins on
the day the paper is due. If you choose to turn in a paper late, you must notify me ahead
of time by phone, email, or in person, before 2 pm the day the paper is due. Late
papers are due by 2 pm the day of the following class session, unless you arrange with
me otherwise. I reserve the right to refuse an unnotified late paper or a second late
paper.
Writing Assignments include three traditional academic essays, writing and drawing
homework, and writing and drawing in class. This course will give you the opportunity to
sharpen your writing, drawing, and composition skills. Each assignment should appear
in polished final-draft form. Allow more time than you think you’ll need for drawing
homework: it takes a long time!
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