This class will explore how notions of the religious arise in comics and graphic novels that visually depict narratives of and about the sacred. Only recently have scholars actively explored how comics frame, in both text and image, religious identity and belief, and the ways in which visual culture informs religious practice. Reading comics is a visual practice, but it is also a study in religious expression, creative imagination, and critical interpretation. We want to engage the multi-textured layers of religious traditions through a reading of comics, and thereby integrate comics within the study of religion even as the very reading of comics challenges our notions of what counts as religion.
We will read together a series of graphic texts that explore and represent religion in multiple and often conflicting registers. To help us navigate through these divergent texts, we want to think of various “rubrics” or “themes” that work within and among our readings. When reading these comics for the first time, think about how these works engage notions of ritual, theology, orientation, sacredness, community, politics, myth, tradition, ancestry, place, and text. In each class we will appeal to one or more of those rubrics when exploring how these graphic mediums represent religion.
This course will be co-taught by Ken Koltun-Fromm (Haverford College) and Yvonne Chireau (Swarthmore College) on the Friday afternoon sessions, and will include a “lab” component on Tuesday evenings run by artist-in-residence JT Waldman. Students will produce comic narratives that draw on critical readings and methodological texts, and do so under Waldman’s guidance.
We will read together a series of graphic texts that explore and represent religion in multiple and often conflicting registers. To help us navigate through these divergent texts, we want to think of various “rubrics” or “themes” that work within and among our readings. When reading these comics for the first time, think about how these works engage notions of ritual, theology, orientation, sacredness, community, politics, myth, tradition, ancestry, place, and text. In each class we will appeal to one or more of those rubrics when exploring how these graphic mediums represent religion.
This course will be co-taught by Ken Koltun-Fromm (Haverford College) and Yvonne Chireau (Swarthmore College) on the Friday afternoon sessions, and will include a “lab” component on Tuesday evenings run by artist-in-residence JT Waldman. Students will produce comic narratives that draw on critical readings and methodological texts, and do so under Waldman’s guidance.
- Teacher: Yvonne Chireau
- Teacher: Kenneth Koltun-Fromm