Autobio-graphic Form 

It has often been remarked upon that comics’ form resembles that of diaries, their reproduced handmade pages expressing what the artist saw and felt through their drawing and writing. In recent years, many have come to associate the comics form as particularly or even uniquely well-suited to autobiography, comics’ hybrid writing and drawing modes offering nuanced or uncertain accounts that also speak of their own creative process. In “Autobio-graphic Form,” students will read and discuss 20^th and 21^st-century comics, manga, and bande dessinée. Contextualized by reading on comics form, authorship, and nonfiction, we will discuss authors’ techniques representing family history, queer identity, quotidian life, trauma, immigrant and minority experiences, disability, and dreams. Students will not only interpret others’ autobiographical works but also, over the course of the term, develop their own autobiographical comics (no training expected).