Term essay

Write an essay, of seven to eight pages, that constitutes a critical analysis of one or more of our course texts. Essays shorter than six full pages or longer than ten pages may be returned unread.

Your essay must not treat the same text you studied in your short analysis essay. For this assignment, Maus counts as one text: if you wrote on Maus II for the first essay, you should not be writing on either part of Maus for this essay.

Your essay must include a response to at least one secondary source. The source must be an academic, peer-reviewed essay, chapter, or book about either the texts you are studying in the essay or about the medium of the graphic novel. Reviews, interviews, summaries, encyclopaedia entries, etc., rarely count as academic and peer-reviewed. McCloud’s Understanding Comics, because it is recommended reading for the course, will not count as your one secondary source, though you are free to use it in addition to another source. You are welcome to use as many secondary sources as you wish, including non-academic and non-peer-reviewed sources, so long as your essay focusses on one of them that is academic and peer-reviewed.

Your essay must respond to the secondary source. Your essay should not simply use a couple of quotations from the source, but should contend with the argument(s) within the source. Your goal is not necessarily to tear apart the argument(s) of the author, but to qualify and/or extend the argument(s). If your source is not directly about the text(s) your essay treats, then your use of the secondary source is to show its applicability to what your essay is arguing. When you introduce the secondary source in your essay, you must include at least one sentence that summarizes the main argument of that source.

Your essay must conform to one of the following subject areas:

• Compare one of the following graphic novels with its film version: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Ghost World. What features of the graphic novel are lost or transformed by the movie?
• Examine the treatment of brutality and death in one or both parts of Maus.
• Examine the treatments of traditionally marginalized individuals in three novels. Marginalization, here, should be a result of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, or religion.
• Examine the encapsulation (using McCloud’s definition of the term) of sexual situations in two or more novels. Do not examine figurative sexual imagery for this topic; instead, examine explicit and/or implicit sexual depictions.
• Examine the use of figurative sexual imagery in two or more novels.
• Compare the depictions of male and/or female physical strength in two novels.
• Examine the treatment of colour in one or two of the following: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, American Born Chinese. Show how the use of colour informs the narrative.
• Examine the depiction of emptiness in two or more of the following: Ghost World, Maus, Fun Home, and Essex County. Show how such depictions inform the narrative.

If you would like to write on a topic that does not fit into one of these areas, please consult the instructor.

As with most English Studies essays, value will be awarded based on the depth of the analysis, the complexity of the discussion, the solidity of the writing, and the thoroughness of the support to the thesis.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Document all sources (of ideas and of quotations), including all web sources (whether an author is identifiable or not).

Essays should conform to MLA guidelines. Essays should have double-spaced lineation. Printed essays should use a 12-point, serif font and should not have a justified right margin. Please use one-inch margins on all sides. Please do not submit the essay in a binder or folder. I am not fond of title pages. Essays must be accompanied by the Essay Submission Checklist.

Essays are due on November 18th in class. See Information for the lateness penalties.