Instructor: Aldama, F
Unique #:35815
Semester: Fall 2022
Cross-listings: n/a
Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.
Description: “Marvel movies aren’t cinema,”film director Martin Scorsese famously announced. In this course we will interrogate, complicate, and lay to rest Scorsese’s overstatement. To this end, we will develop the concepts, tools, and theories to explore and examine how the art of comicbook storytelling in film (primarily) as well as print and TV (secondarily) can offer sophisticated forms of storytelling that enrich our understanding of representations of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and class. Along the way we will consider aesthetic cross pollinations and distribution modes and convergences across media. Our goal: to carefully analyze how willful reconstructions of historically underrepresented subjectivities in comic book narratives can make new our perception, thought, and feeling about our existence in the world.
Theory (selections provided via Canvas): Charles Hatfield and Bart Beaty. Comics Studies: A Guidebook.Select chapters; Professor Latinx YouTube. “Comics Scholars on Comics.”Select lectures; Frederick Luis Aldama. Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics. Select chapters; Frederick Luis Aldama. Documentary. Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics(in-class screening).
Film: Stefon Bristol. See You Yesterday (2019); Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Captain Marvel (2019); Josh Boone. New Mutants (2020); Ryan Coogler. Black Panther (2018); Joe Cornish. Attack the Block (2011); J.D. Dillard. Sleight (2016); Jon Favreau. Iron Man (2008); Patty Jenkins. Wonder Woman (2017); James Mangold. Logan (2017); George Miller. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); Christopher Nolan. Batman Begins (2005); The Dark Knight (2008);The Dark Knight Rises (2012); Bob Persichetti, Ramsey, and Rothman. Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse (2018); M. Night Shyamalan. Unbreakable (2000); Zack Snyder. Justice League (2017); Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok (2017); Edgar Wright. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).
Television: Superman & Lois. CW. Season 1, episode 1; Dark Angel.Season 1, episode 1 “Pilot”; Stargirl. CW. Season 1, episode 4 “Wildcat”; The Umbrella Academy.Netflix.Season 2, episode 1; The Chronicles of Cisco. 4-part web series; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot. 6-part web series.
Print: Marx Sexton and Nico Lathouris. Mad Max Furiosa; Saladin Ahmed & Javier Garrón. Miles Morales: Spider-Man # 1; Jill Thompson. Wonder Woman: The True Amazon; Bryan Lee O’Malley Scott Pilgrim vs. the WorldVol. 1; Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Panther & the Crew.
Requirements & Grading: Discussion Board: 25%; 3 Analytical Writing Assignments: 75% (25% each assignment); Attendance:this will not be used in determining the course grade.