ENGL 808 (01) - Nonfiction: Form and Technique

Nonfiction: Form and Technique

Durham   Liberal Arts :: English
Credits: 4.0
Term: Spring 2021 - Full Term (02/01/2021 - 05/11/2021)
Grade Mode: Letter Grading
Class Size:   15  
CRN: 52004
A writer's view of contemporary nonfiction, emphasizing the choices the writer faces in the process of research and writing.
Section Comments: Special Topic: Graphic Memoir
Department Approval Required. Contact Academic Department for permission then register through Webcat.
Instructors: STAFF

Times & Locations

Start Date End Date Days Time Location
2/1/2021 5/11/2021 T 9:40am - 12:30pm HS 332
Additional Course Details: 

Practice the craft of storytelling through graphic narrative, a medium combining text and image. As a course community, we will address how to read graphic narratives while we boldly try our own hand at creating a short graphic narrative or at least a storyboard for a longer one. Discussions and assignments will hone your storytelling skills as you examine the construction and formal elements of this medium. We will examine the creation of character; place; panel and page layout; the passage of time; lettering and font; tone; color; structure; and style—all as carefully crafted in visual images as they are in prose. Required texts will revolve around themes such as childhood and memory; trauma and survival; queerness; telling history; becoming ill; telling another’s story; race, ethnicity, & culture. Possible texts (so please don’t purchase them yet): Yang and Gurihiru’s Superman Smashes the Klan; Tamaki & Tamaki’s This One Summer; Ferris’s Monsters; Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen; Bui’s The Best We Could Do; Thompson’s Blankets; Johnson & Pleece’s Incognegro; Flowers’ Hot Comb; Lefevre’s The Photographer; Barry’s how-to books. Students will assemble a comic or portfolio at semester’s end, which will include a written portion discussing the elements used to create the final project.