This week the 12th graders started studying Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the first novel in the last part of their English course. This text is a bit different from what you’d typically expect in an English class, though: it’s a graphic novel. What is a graphic novel, exactly? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is “a type of text combining words and images” (Murray). This definition doesn’t distinguish between graphic novels and comics, however, and a distinction must be made. While comics are usually short snippets of a story, aimed primarily at juvenile audiences and produced on a weekly or monthly basis, graphic novels are generally aimed at an older audience and tell an entire story in book format, oftentimes incorporating “serious literary themes and sophisticated artwork” (Murray).
Using comics to tell intricate stories is certainly not a new practice – the Japanese “manga” tradition has quite a rich history – but there has been a recent trend in using graphic novels in the English literature classroom. The use of pictures and short, pithy dialogue enables students to more easily access the deeper ideas at work in the text. The rich social and political commentary in texts like Maus, Watchmen and Persepolis allow for discussions that rival those usually associated with more canonical works. As an added bonus, the illustrations themselves offer insight into the texts and provide yet another “way in” for students with their analysis.
So are graphic novels just glorified comic books? No way! They are deep, insightful texts that allow for extended analysis…and they’re fun to read as a bonus!
