english 3177 3 - yorku la&ps...

English 3177 3.0 Comics and Cartoons II: Cold War-Today in the United States

Professor Jonathan Warren Stong 208 (416) 736-5166

[email protected]

FACULTY OF LIBERAL ARTS & PROFESSIONAL STUDIES Department of English 208 Stong College 4700 Keele Street Toronto Ontario Canada M3J 1P3 Tel 416 736 5166 Fax 416 736 5412 [email protected] www.yorku.ca/laps/en

LOCATIONS

AND TIMES

Lecture: Thursdays 12:30 AM-2:30 PM, HNE 038 Tutorial 1: Thursdays 2:30-3:30 PM, ACE 006 Tutorial 2: Thursdays 3:30-4:30 PM, ACW 002 Tutorial 3: Thursdays 4:30-5:30 PM, HNE 037 Tutorial 4: Fridays 9:30-10:30 AM, Vanier 105 Tutorial 5: Thursdays 2:30-3:30 PM, Vari 3017

OFFICE HOURS (OR BY APPOINTMENT)

Professor Warren: TBA, Stong 208

Tutorial 5 Josh Chong: TBA, TBA (ext. TBA) Tutorials TBA [email protected] Sean Rogers: TBA, TBA (ext. TBA) Tutorials TBA [email protected]

COURSE

DESCRIPTION From Road Runner to The Simpsons, this course explores trends in post-war American comics and cartoons: vigilantism, paranoia, national insecurity, normality and abnormality, Peanuts and MAD, the counterculture, R. Crumb, Spiderman, X-Men, and new directions in contemporary comics and cartoons. After 1950, in print, on movie screens, and on television, America overflowed with colourful graphic explosions that encapsulated national moods and dreams, responded to historical events and trends, and supplied a gripping visual vocabulary through which such realities could be understood. In this half-course, we will learn to read the strong lines, bright hues, and lean prose of post-war comics and cartoons, (from roughly 1950-today) to discover stories at once epic and everyday, lurid and genial, “normal” and undeniably weird. We will discover that these works do not always reflect the placid face of a triumphant Americanism, but a culture’s macabre fascinations, social anxieties and neuroses, and personal and national insecurities.

English 3177 3.0 Comics and Cartoons II: Cold War-Today in the United States of 10

REQUIREMENTS

Beginning at the end of the 1940s with the comic existentialism of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, this half-course will explore the turbulent cultural forces that shaped comics and cartoons from the 1950s to today: themes and characters, issues and settings, structures and conflicts. Starting with some basic training in how to recognize and understand their many levels, this course will consider the comics and cartoons of the second part of the twentieth century as a living matrix of national and cultural debate, speculation, and fantasy. We will follow the transition from the “Golden Age” of the superhero into a period of odd and controversial fixations on the shocking, violent, and gruesome. We will consider how early Cold War national insecurity and panic about “un-Americanism,” juvenile delinquency, and moral perversion led to a pivotal crackdown--U.S. Senate hearings and the Comics Code of 1954--and a shift in comics and cartoons. This course will explore how such social control was exercised, what forms it took, and what sorts of deviance it targeted. We will pay close attention to the rise of “normal” and the retreat of strong women back to the kitchen as the formula of familial togetherness asserted itself in various ways. We will consider the crucial role comics and cartoons played in the development of the counterculture in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. We will look closely at works from the “Silver Age” of superheroes to see how nuclear family normality conflicts with individual difference and even freakishness and at a range of wittily subversive and psychedelic, “underground” comics. We’ll analyze the resurgence of Batman in the 1980s before concluding with an exploration of the diversity of comics and cartoons in contemporary American society. Throughout, we will interpret the comics and cartoons of the second part of the twentieth century as multi-layered and provocative texts that demand their own reading strategies, treating them as a popular archive of cultural history. Midterm Examination (Thursday, 14 February in lecture) 25% Essay (Due Thursday, 28 March in lecture) 30% Final Examination (During the April 2013 exam period) 35% Informed Participation (see explanation below) 10% Informed participation is not the same thing as “attendance.” Though you cannot participate at all, if you do not attend class, of course. Nor does it merely mean “speaking in class.” Learning depends upon active participation. You are expected to come to class, and you are expected to contribute by speaking. The participation grade will reflect the quality of those frequent contributions. Informed participation means that you will have read and thought about the material assigned for the class and that you will be ready to participate actively in discussions, listening and responding to the views of others, contributing your own thoughtful questions and interpretations. Participation in tutorials means that you 1) contribute your ideas; 2) listen to the ideas of others; 3) respond helpfully to others; 4) help others learn; and 5) let yourself take a chance and be surprised.


MOODLE

All course lectures will be accompanied by PowerPoint slide presentations. These presentations, the essay assignment sheet, the course syllabus, and weekly lecture podcasts will be available via Moodle at: http://moodle.yorku.ca.

IMPORTANT

DATES, LATENESS,

AND EXTENSIONS

The Midterm Examination will be held in lecture on Thursday, 14 February 2013. The Essay is due in lecture on Thursday, 28 March 2013. The Final Examination will take place during the Examination Period in April 2013, date and time to be announced. Because the Registrar’s Office may schedule the final examination on any date during the exam period (10-26 April 2013), you should not make any out-of-town travel plans until after the date of the final is posted. Travel conflicts are not an excuse for missing the final examination. You should plan to attend the entire lecture when submitting work. Merely stopping by at the beginning or end of class to drop off work is disrespectful. Work should be submitted in person. Electronic submissions are not acceptable. The staff in the English Department will not receive student work. Anything left in the professor’s or teaching assistants’ mailbox or under his or their door will be dated when found. If it is not possible to hand your work in directly, there is a course “drop box” on the third floor of Stong. Do not risk the lateness penalties: arrange your other obligations so that you can submit your course work properly.

In the absence of an extension, all late work will be penalized a grade per week (from from A to B+, from B+ to B, from B to C+, from D to F, for example); this penalty will be applied to any part of a week. Lateness penalties begin to accrue immediately after the lecture in which work is due. That means that work handed in later in the day will be penalized a full grade (similarly, work handed in a day or two late will be penalized for a full week’s lateness). The professor and teaching assistants will also provide very limited commentary when reading and grading late work. There are two sorts of extension for term work: that resulting from an emergency and the other kind. Documented health and personal emergencies should be brought to the professor’s attention as soon as possible (normally within 48 hours unless an unavoidable need for more time is documented); these will be accommodated in whatever way is feasible and appropriate. Acceptable documentation must be original and in writing, including: medical notes, police reports, or death certificates as the situation requires. Personal or familial notes are not acceptable ways of documenting an emergency. Non-emergency extensions will be granted only after prior consultation in


person with the professor during office hours. This means that you must seek approval from the professor for any extension not arising from an unforeseen health or personal emergency at least two weeks in advance of the due date. Heeding this deadline is your responsibility. All extensions must be confirmed in writing during the professor’s office hours.

GUIDELINES FOR

MISSED TESTS

You must contact the course director telephone or e-mail within 48 hours of the test. Clearly state the following:

• your name (it helps if you spell your last name), • your student number, • course and section, • telephone number at which you can be reached, and • the best time to call you back

If you cannot contact the course director during this 48 hour period, subsequent documentation accounting for the delay must be provided.

If you missed the test due to medical circumstances, you will have to provide an original statement from your attending physician, psychologist, or counselor. This statement must indicate:

• the full name, mailing address, and telephone number of your physician;

• a description of the nature of the illness and its duration (i.e., specific dates covered); and

• an explanation of whether the illness and/or medication prescribed would have seriously affected your ability to study and perform over the period in question.

Note well: your physician’s office may be contacted to verify that the forms were completed by the physician. Failure to provide appropriate documentation will result in a grade of 0 (zero) on the missed test. If you missed the test for non-medical reasons, you will need to provide appropriate documentation of the circumstances. Such documentation includes: death certificates, obituary notice, automobile accident reports, and airline/bus ticket/receipt for emergency travel (with date of booking on ticket). Airline/train/bus ticket/receipts for emergency travel must indicate destination, departure, and return dates. With such documentation, you will be able to take a make-up test on a date set by the professor (this may be as early as a week following the missed test). Although the content to be examined will be the same, the format may or may not follow that of the original test/exam. A conflict in another course during the time of the make-up is not an acceptable reason for missing the make-up (unless there is an examination in the other course at that time). Please be aware that if you miss the test before the official drop date, you will not have the requisite 10% feedback on your course work to determine if you should drop the course or not. It is in your best interest to write the tests at the


time they are scheduled by the course director. Note well: only extremely unusual circumstances would warrant a second chance at a make-up. Having to work at the time of a test is not a valid excuse for missing the test. It is your responsibility to be aware of scheduled examination dates. Ignorance of such dates is not a valid excuse for missing the test. Very Important: Students missing the final examination, for whatever reason, must file a petition with the Registrar’s Office.

DOCUMENTATION

AND PLAGIARISM

York University’s Policy on Academic Honesty: “A central purpose of the University is to teach students to think independently and critically. Cheating and other forms of academic dishonesty run counter to this purpose and violate the ethical and intellectual principles of the University; they are therefore subject to severe penalties.” For further information about the risks, see York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Honesty in the online Calendar. Beware: your professor takes this policy very seriously and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty if they occur. Students are required to submit the course essay on paper and via turnitin.com, an on-line, plagiarism-checking service. You’ve already heard the warnings about plagiarism. Obviously it’s against the rules to buy essays or copy chunks from your friend’s homework, and it’s also plagiarism to borrow passages from books or articles or Web sites without identifying them. You know that the purpose of any paper is to show your own thinking, not create a patchwork of borrowed ideas. But you may still be wondering how you’re supposed to give proper references to all the reading you’ve done and all the ideas you've encountered. The point of documenting sources in academic papers is not just to avoid unpleasant visits to the Dean’s office, but to demonstrate that you know what is going on in your field of study. It’s also a courtesy to your readers because it helps them consult the material you’ve found. So mentioning what others have said doesn’t lessen the credit you get for your own thinking – in fact, it adds to your credibility. That’s not to say that questions about ownership of ideas are simple. The different systems for typing up references may seem like a nuisance, but the real challenge is establishing the relationship of your thinking to the reading you’ve done. Here are some common questions and basic answers.

• Can’t I avoid problems just by listing every source in the bibliography?

No, you need to integrate your acknowledgements into what you’re saying. Give the reference as soon as you’ve mentioned the idea you


are using – don’t wait until the end of the paragraph. That may mean naming authors (“X says” and “Y argues against X,”) and then going on to make your own comment. Have a look at journal articles to see how they refer to their sources. • If I put the ideas into my own words, do I still have to clog up

my pages with all those names and numbers? Sorry – yes, you do. In academic papers, you need to keep mentioning authors and pages and dates to show how your ideas are related to those of the experts. It’s sensible to use your own words to save space and to help connect ideas smoothly. But whether you quote a passage directly in quotation marks, paraphrase it closely in your own words, or just summarize it rapidly, you need to identify the source then and there. • But I didn’t know anything about the subject until I started this

paper. So do I have to give a reference for every point I make? You’re safer to over-reference than to skimp. But you can cut down the clutter by recognizing that some ideas are “common knowledge” in the field – that is, taken for granted by people knowledgeable about the topic. Facts easily found in reference books are considered common knowledge: the date of the Armistice for World War I, for example, or the present population of Canada. For such facts, you don’t need to name a specific source, even if you learned them only when doing your research. In some disciplines, information covered in class lectures doesn’t need acknowledgement. Some interpretive ideas may also be so well accepted that they don’t need referencing – that Picasso is a distinguished modernist painter, for instance, or that smoking is harmful to health. Check with your professor or TA if you’re in doubt whether a specific point is considered common knowledge in your field. • How can I tell what’s my own idea and what has come from

something I read? Careful note-taking helps, so you know what names and dates to attach to specific ideas. It’s worthwhile to write summarizing notes in your own words, putting quotation marks around any specific wordings you might want to quote. And make a deliberate effort, as you go through your readings, to note connections among ideas, especially contrasts and disagreements, as well as jotting down questions and thoughts of your own. If you find as you write that you’re following one or two sources too closely, deliberately look back in your notes for other sources that take different views – then write about why the differences exist. • So what exactly do I have to document? With experience reading academic prose, you’ll soon get used to the ways writers in your field refer to their sources. Here are the main times you should give acknowledgements: a. Quotations, paraphrases, or summaries: If you use the author’s exact words, enclose them in quotation marks, or indent passages of more than four lines. But it’s seldom worthwhile to use long quotations. In


literary studies, quote a few words of the work you’re analysing and comment on them. In other disciplines, quote only when the original words are especially memorable. In most cases, use your own words to summarize the idea you want to discuss, emphasizing the points relevant to your argument. But be sure to name sources even when you are not using the exact original words. As in the examples here, it’s often a good idea to mention the author's name to gain some reflected authority and to indicate where the borrowing starts and stops. b. Specific facts used as evidence for your argument or interpretation: First consider whether the facts you’re mentioning are “common knowledge” according to the definition above. When you’re relying on facts that might be disputed within your discipline – perhaps newly published data – establish that they’re trustworthy by showing that you got them from an authoritative source. c. Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with them or not: The way you introduce a reference can indicate your attitude and lead into your own argument.

[This is a slightly abridged version of material prepared by Margaret Procter, Coordinator of Writing Support, University of Toronto. Updated September 1, 198].

MLA STYLE

All written work submitted in this course should adhere to the format developed by the Modern Language Association. A sort of bible for how to configure academic essays in the humanities, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Seventh Edition. Ed. Joseph Gibaldi. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009) is available at the Scott Library (call number LB 2369 G53 2009) and at the York Bookstore.

TEXTS LISTED ALPHABETICALLY

Barry, Lynda. The! Greatest! of! Marlys! Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2000. Benson, John, ed. The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best of 1950s MAD.

Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2012. [Additional MAD comics posted to Moodle].

Burns, Charles. Black Hole. New York: Pantheon, 2005. Clowes, Daniel. Ghost World. Seattle: Fantagraphic Books, 1998. Lichtenstein, Nelson, Susan Strasser, et al., eds. Who Built America: People

and the Nation’s Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society. Vol. 2, 1877 to the Present. New York: Bedford St. Martins, 2000.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper, 2000.

Miller, Frank. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Tenth Anniversary Edition). New York: DC Comics, 1996.

Schulz, Charles M. Peanuts: The Art Of Charles M. Schulz. New York: Pantheon, 2003.

Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth. New York: Pantheon, 2000.

A course kit of required readings is available for purchase from the York


University Bookstore or short-term loan from the Scott Library. Some additional readings will be posted to Moodle as .pdf files as noted below.

TORONTO COMICS

RESOURCES

The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street, Toronto, Ontario M6G 2L7,

416-533-9168; www.beguiling.com Silver Snail Comics, 367 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 2A4,

416-593-0889; www.silversnail.com

BASIC ETIQUETTE Please. . . Arrive on time and leave at the end. Use your computer only for note-taking. Do not surf the Internet, exchange instant messages, or use e-mail during class. Do not sleep in class. Do not read the newspaper in class. Shut off all mobile telephones before class. If your watch (or your computer or your pager or your PDA, etc.) beeps, shut it off before class or leave it at home. Avoid speaking or whispering while someone else is addressing the class. Avoid speaking or whispering while the class is watching a film or video or listening to music. If you need to leave during class, be as quiet as possible (for example, if you need to leave early, sit at the end of a row and close to a door).

EMAIL

The volume of email to which your professors and teaching assistants must reply grows every year. Before you send a question via email, please make sure that it is not already answered in this syllabus or in another course handout. Email is not a venue for teaching and learning. That’s what class and office hours are for. If you have questions or comments about the course material, raise them in class or during office hours. Assignments and grades will not be distributed by email. Normally it will take one business day to reply to your email. That means, email sent after 5 PM on a Tuesday will not get a reply until Thursday at the earliest. Friday emails will not get replies until the following Monday at the earliest.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES Note: There will often be an in-class video presentation during lecture. Students will need to attend class to view these materials.

Week Date Topic/Reading 1 Thursday, 10 January 1950s Normality and MAD: The Revolution Begins

Benson, John, ed. The Sincerest Form of Parody: The


Best of 1950s MAD. [Additional MAD comics posted to Moodle].

Kurtzman, Harvey. Playboy’s Little Annie Fanny. (kit) Wertham, Fredric. “Bumps and Bulges” (kit) Nyberg, Amy Kiste. Seal of Approval [selections] (kit) Harvey, Robert C. “The Comic Book as Individual

Expression.” (kit) In-class video: Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr., The Blob (1958)

(excerpt); Don Siegel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (excerpt)

2 Thursday, 17 January Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Suburbanization, Misfits, and

Existential Angst Schulz, Charles M. Peanuts: The Art Of Charles M. Schulz. (first half, approximately pages 1-184) Goldwater, John L. Archie Comics (kit) Lichtenstein and Strasser, chapter 10-11 McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Chapters 1-3; pages 1-93 In-class video: Chuck Jones, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote (Looney Tunes shorts)

3 Thursday, 24 January Cold War Fantasy: The Silver Age of Super-Heroes in Context Mooney, Jim. Supergirl (Moodle) Lee, Stan, et al. Fantastic Four (kit) Lee, Stan, et. al. Spider-Man (kit) Lichtenstein and Strasser, chapter 12 McCloud. Understanding Comics. Chapters 4 and 8; pages 94-117, 185-92 In-class video: Sam Raimi, Spider-Man (2002) (excerpts)

4 Thursday, 31 January The Age of Woodstock: Snoopy and the Spirit of the

Underground Schulz, Charles M. Peanuts: The Art Of Charles M. Schulz. (second half, approximately pages 184-368) Crumb, R. Selections. (Moodle) Shelton, Gilbert. “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” (kit) Estren, Mark James. A History of Underground Comics (kit) Lichtenstein and Strasser, chapter 13 McCloud. Understanding Comics. Chapter 5; pages 118-37

In-class videos: Bill Melendez, Snoopy, Come Home (1972) (excerpt); Terry Zwigoff, Crumb (1994) (excerpts)

5 Thursday, 7 February Into the Eighties: Troubled Heroes and Graphic Traumas

Miller, Frank. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns


Claremont, Chris et al. X-Men. (kit) McCloud. Understanding Comics. Chapter 6; pages 138-61

6 Thursday, 14 February Midterm Examination (in lecture)

No tutorials this week Saturday, 16 February- Reading Week (no classes)

Friday, 22 February 7 Thursday, 28 February Suburb Ennui

Clowes, Daniel. Ghost World. Spiegelman, Art. Maus. (kit) Lichtenstein and Strasser, chapter 14 In-class video: The Simpsons (excerpts)

8 Thursday, 7 March Culture Jamming in the ’Burbs Clowes, Daniel. Ghost World. Barry, Lynda. The! Greatest! of! Marlys! Hollander, Nicole. Sylvia. (kit)

9 Thursday, 14 March Anti-Super-Hero: Jimmy Corrigan

Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Friday, 15 March Last Date to Drop Course Without Receiving a Grade

10 Thursday, 21 March Jimmy Corrigan II

Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. 11 Thursday, 28 March Comics Coming of Age: Black Hole Burns, Charles. Black Hole.

Essay Due in Lecture 12 Thursday, 4 April Black Hole II

Burns, Charles. Black Hole. Monday, 8 April Winter Courses End Last Date to Submit Term Work

Wednesday, 10 April- Examination Period Friday, 26 April

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