Hero characters and their narratives serve as important sites for negotiating a culture’s values. Informed by sexism in Western cultures, female heroes often construct and perpetuate women’s statuses as second-class citizens. However, female heroes also can and sometimes do work against such representations. This thesis argues for a third wave feminist interpretation of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men comic books as a text that brings multiple feminist perspectives into conversation with each other and that opposes certain patriarchal systems. Through narrative and formal analysis, I explore female X-Men Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde as characters who reject gender essentialism and misogynist value systems and whose relationship addresses concepts of difference in third wave feminism. Using similar methods, I also explore an interpretation of villain Danger as a failure to integrate radical feminist ideologies into third wave feminism. I believe that Astonishing X-Men provides an example of how norms of the mainstream superhero comic book medium, which scholars have criticized as sexist, can be reworked for a new generation of feminists. / text

The depictions of women in film noir and neo-noir have long been objects of interest for feminist scholars. In this report, I extend this scholarship to examine Frank Miller's Sin city graphic novel series as a version of neo-noir that is both intimately connected to noir tradition and innovative in its approach, specifically in terms of his representation of women. Miller depicts his female characters in a variety of ways that reflect both the positive and negative imagery of women in classic noir and neo-noir; in doing so, he creates a new and complex vision of women in noir. This report uses three different characterizations of women in film noir--the spider woman, the femme moderne, and the angel--to explore the ways in which Miller's female characters can be understood to simultaneously uphold and challenge these conventions. / text

This study has analyzed the relationship between trauma and otherness in two autobiographical graphic narratives. The study suggests that autobiographical graphic narratives are better equipped to represent the effects, mainly that of otherness, on the self as a result of trauma. In the ten volume manga series Barefoot Gen, Keiji Nakazawa details his childhood survival of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. As he rebuilds his life, fellow survivals that look like his deceased family members recall his trauma of the bombing. Like we see in Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, Art Spiegelman also uses repetitious imagery and a fragmentary form of comic narration to represent the experience of trauma throughout In the Shadow of No Towers. However, while Nakazawa repeats specific imagery of the atomic bombing throughout Barefoot Gen based on his eyewitness testimony, Spiegelman manipulates imagery of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to reject the notion that only one specific set of images can represent a traumatic event. Thus, by the end of the second section of In the Shadow of No Towers, Spiegelman creates a multiplicity of images to reenact the trauma of 9/11. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only.

The goal of this thesis is to advance understanding of the ways in which discourses of reading, literacy and culture were used to reify class stratification in mid-twentieth-century America. This project uses the examples of The Reader’s Digest magazine and Classics Illustrated comic books to assess the adaptation and the ideologies surrounding textual form. It examines the efforts of self-proclaimed cultural elites to identify and denigrate middlebrow reading habits through dismissive critiques of texts and audiences as one moment in an on-going historical process of domination and exclusion. These avenues of exploration will reveal the complexity and variance of class definition in a pluralist democracy which, it turns out, are still very much a part of contemporary culture. [Pages 101 and 102 are missing.) / Le but de cette thèse est de faire progresser la connaissance des manières dont les contexts discursifs de la lecture, de l’alphabétisation et de la culture étaient utilisés en Amérique, au milieu du vingtième siècle, afin de réifier la stratification sociale. Des exemples tels que la revue The Reader ‘s Digest et la bande dessinée Classics Illustrated seront utilisés, dans ce projet, pour illustrer l’adaptation et les idéologies autour de la forme textuelle. Cet ouvrage examine comment ceux qui proclamés par eux-mêmes élites culturelles, ont tenté d’identifier et de dénigrer les habitudes de lecture du lecteur moyen par des critiques dédaigneuses des textes et du public, en un procédé historique persistant de domination et d’exclusion. Ces voies d’exploration révèleront la complexité et la diversité des définitions du concept de classes à l’intérieur d’une démocratie pluraliste, lesquelles, somme toute, cotinuent de faire partie intégrante de la culture contemporaine. [Il manque de pages 101 et 102.]

In the digital era, the comics medium has been transported from print to computer screen, and thus its evolution takes place in digital performances based on full-body interaction technologies. The major implication of this process is that the conventions of comics will be merging with those of performance, film, and animation. In a comics story implemented with full-body interaction technologies, representational space shifts from two to three dimensions. Physical elements can now easily be combined with virtual ones. The participants' contribution to the experience now includes a larger set of kinesthetic choices. Earlier media offer the readers the opportunity to read the story with their eyes, turn pages, and click a mouse. Instead of one or perhaps two readers of print and screen-based comics, a digital performance can be experienced by a group of viewers positioned in space in various ways. By utilizing the tools of computer vision, the projection of a participant can be made the main character of the comics story. Consequently, the comics and animation frame changes when moved to digital performance spaces. The frame becomes embodied, nested, elastic, and dynamic. The first two qualities relate to the physicality of the medium, where performers and viewers are simultaneously present in both the real and fictional spaces. The second two qualities relate to the procedurality of the medium and the potential for computational manipulation within the frame based on changing relationships across space (distance) and time (story).

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on September 3, 2009). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): John Parrish-Sprowl. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83).

This dissertation examines the feminist intersections of composition studies, visual rhetoric, and comics studies in order to identify a rhetorically interdisciplinary approach to composition that moves beyond composition studies’ persistent separation of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, rhetoric and ideology, and analysis and composition. Chapter one transgresses the qualitative/quantitative divide using keyword analysis and visualization of 2,573 dissertation and thesis abstracts published between 1979 – 2012 to engage in what composition studies scholar Derek Mueller terms a “distant reading” of the extent and contexts of composition studies’ self-identified interdisciplinarity. Complementing my more traditional literature review, the results of this analysis validate the necessity of my analytical and pedagogical interventions by suggesting that composition studies has not yet addressed comics through the feminist intersections of visual rhetoric and critical pedagogy. Chapters two and three develop a rhetorical analytical approach to comics that moves beyond comics studies’ persistent separation of rhetoric and ideology by positing conflict as an identifiable form of rhetorical persuasion in the Martha Washington comics. These comics were collaboratively created by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons between 1989 – 2007. Following feminist rhetorician Susan Jarratt’s case for rhetorical conflict as a pedagogical tool and extending Chicana feminist Chela Sandoval’s conceptualization of meta-ideologizing in which oppressive ideologies are re-signified via recontextualizations that juxtapose ‘old’ and ‘new’ signs of ideological meaning, I explore the rhetorically persuasive conflict arising from visual, conceptual, and embodied juxtapositions of race, class, and gender made visible in these comics. Chapter four outlines a feminist, critical, visual rhetorical – what I call prismatic – approach to composition pedagogy that requires (1) contexts in which differences and conflicts can be identified and engaged, (2) explicable sites of intersection between ideological perspectives and rhetorical construction, and (3) models for the transition from ideological critique to (re)composition. This is not an add-pop-genre-and-stir approach to composition pedagogy; rather, it intentionally deploys comics’ inherent multimodality as a challenge to students’ often narrow definitions of rhetoric and composition.

Alguns dos principais problemas na especificação de requisitos de um sistema estão relacionados com a identificação do que é necessário ser desenvolvido e com o entendimento das regras de negócio da empresa. Dentro deste contexto, este trabalho tem como objetivo propor a utilização de histórias em quadrinhos na metodologia de especificação de requisitos. Propôs-se um método de simulação de cenários por meio da utilização de histórias em quadrinhos, no qual é preciso definir uma linguagem para especificação de requisitos e, na sequência, é possível documentar requisitos utilizando a linguagem definida. Dois experimentos-piloto foram aplicados para Analistas de Sistemas, Engenheiros de Requisitos e Desenvolvedores de duas empresas, com o propósito de levá-los a desenvolver uma história em quadrinhos para mapear um processo de negócio dentro do seu ambiente de trabalho. Esses profissionais responderam a um questionário, analisando as histórias em quadrinhos desenvolvidas. Após análise desses dois experimentos, decidiu-se estabelecer um Guia Norteador para histórias em quadrinhos para auxiliar as pessoas na criação das histórias. Em um terceiro experimento a autora especificou requisitos de um software por meio de uma HQ. A HQ foi criada de acordo com o Guia norteador para criação de HQs e baseada na Gramática estabelecida para a linguagem das HQs. Este experimento foi aplicado para 77 participantes, com o propósito de verificar o entendimento de uma HQ. Um experimento final foi aplicado com alunos do quarto ano do curso de Ciência da Computação, com o objetivo de levá-los a criar uma História em quadrinhos especificando requisitos de um software, essa HQ deveria ser criada baseada na Gramática para HQs e de acordo com o Guia norteador. Os resultados de todos esses experimentos foram avaliados de forma positiva, comprovando, que o uso de histórias em quadrinhos facilita a identificação de detalhes nos processos de especificação de requisitos. / Some of the greatest challenges for Software requirements elicitation are related with the identification of what is needed to be developed and with the understanding of the organization business rules. Within this context, this work aims to propose the use of comics in the methodology of requirements specification. A method of scenario simulation has been proposed through the use of comics, in which a language needs to be defined for requirements specification and, in the sequence, it is possible to document requirements using the defined language. Two pilot experiments were applied to Systems Analysts, Requirements Engineers and Developers of two companies, with the purpose of making them to develop a comic book to map a business process within their work environment. These professionals answered a questionnaire, analyzing the developed comics. After analyzing these two experiments, it was decided to establish a Guide for Comics to help people create stories. In a third experiment the author specified requirements of some software through a HQ. The HQ was created according to the guideline for creation of HQs and based on the Grammar established for the language of the HQs. This experiment was applied to 77 participants, in order to verify the understanding of a HQ. A final experiment was applied with senior students of the Computer Science course, in order to get them to create a comic book by specifying software requirements, this HQ should be created based on the Grammar for Comics and according to the Guide. The results of all these experiments were evaluated in a positive way, proving that the use of comics facilitates the identification of details in the processes of specification of requirements.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:15:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marco Tulio pag 1_100.pdf: 2516116 bytes, checksum: a33de625db3d74cc989a6d94a22806bb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-21 / This research proposes the use of comics (comic strips; comic books and graphic novels) to teach History in Elementary Schools and High Schools. By the comics content analysis, this research will offer as suggestions on how comics can be used as historical sources to study an specific age or period as support or reference to stimulate thinking about the origins of the anachronisms found in the stereotypes and other popular images traditionally associated to past cultures. This research intends to identify which are the main difficulties, challenges or even limitations avoiding a better and more constant use of the comics as a tool to teach History. / O projeto propõe estabelecer um suporte teórico e metodológico para a utilização das HQs no ensino da História pelos professores de História que trabalham no ciclo 2 do ensino fundamental e no ensino médio. Através da análise do conteúdo das HQs, esta pesquisa fornecerá sugestões práticas de como as HQs tanto podem ser usadas como fonte documental para o estudo de determinada época quanto podem ser material de apoio para promover em sala de aula reflexões sobre a gênese dos anacronismos encontrados nas representações de culturas do passado. Pretende identificar avanços e também as principais dificuldades, obstáculos ou mesmo limites que ainda impedem um uso mais freqüente ou proveitoso desse recurso no ensino de História.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Metrópolis e Gotham são as cidades imaginárias das histórias em quadrinhos que, respectivamente, ambientam as aventuras do Super-Homem e Batman. Estes dois super-heróis foram criados nos Estados Unidos em finais da década de 1930 e continuam a povoar a vida de crianças e adultos oito décadas depois de sua concepção. O objetivo desta dissertação é fazer uma análise das cidades do Super-Homem e Batman em seu contexto de criação por meio de uma análise etnográfica da literatura em quadrinhos. Objetiva-se analisar as representações dessas cidades ficcionais em relação com as questões vividas pelas grandes cidades norte-americanas de sua época, como crime, migração e delinquência. Para tanto, analisa-se as primeiras histórias dos referidos super-heróis publicadas desde a sua criação em 1938 e 1939 até a entrada dos Estados Unidos na Segunda Guerra Mundial, em dezembro de 1941. Discute-se a questão da dupla identidade, da liberdade e do anonimato nas grandes cidades a partir do gênero de super-heróis, bem como contextualiza-se a criação dos quadrinhos como um meio de comunicação de massa nascido no ambiente moderno e urbano. A tese central desta dissertação gira em torno da discussão sobre cidades e Modernidade. Considera-se Gotham e Metrópolis como representações que refletem pontos de vista distintos sobre as grandes cidades modernas. A primeira é uma cidade noturna e violenta de crimes relacionados com a loucura, o crime organizado e a migração. Subjaz aqui a noção de que a modernidade, tendo como locus as grandes cidades, seria um fator que desagrega a vida social levando os habitantes de Gotham City a enfrentar um cotidiano de conflitos, seja com criminosos, loucos ou imigrantes. Metrópolis, por sua vez, enfrenta em seu cotidiano problemas técnicos e crimes de cunho moral, sendo uma cidade diurna de linhas retas e prédios de estilos arquitetônicos modernistas retratados a partir de imagens panorâmicas que destacam seus prédios e arranha-céus iluminados, enquanto Gotham é representada como uma cidade escura de prédios monolíticos que se repetem indistintamente em seu horizonte. Por mais ficcionais, utópicas ou distópicas que possam ser as cidades das histórias em quadrinhos elas são representações que se relacionam com o imaginário da época e sociedade em que foram criadas. Esta dissertação compreende Gotham City e Metrópolis como sínteses de concepções urbanas modernas, relacionando-as com correntes urbanísticas presentes nas primeiras décadas do século XX e com questões colocadas pelo pensamento social da Escola de Chicago de Sociologia. / Metropolis and Gotham are the imaginary cities of comics that respectively set the adventures of Superman and Batman. These two superheroes were created in the United States in the late 1930s and continue to populate the lives of children and adults eight decades after its conception. The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the cities of Superman and Batman in their context of creation through an ethnographic analysis of comic book literature. The aim is to analyze the fictional representations of these cities in relation to the issues faced by large North American cities of its time, such as crime, migration and delinquency. In this intent the first stories of these superheroes are analyzed since its creation in 1938 and 1939 until the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941. It is discussed the question of dual identities, freedom and anonymity in large cities through the comic book superheroes genre, as well it is contextualized the creation of comics as a medium of mass communication born in modern and urban context. The central thesis of this dissertation is developed around the discussion between cities and Modernity. Gotham and Metropolis are seem as representations that reflects distinct point of view about great modern cities. The former is a nocturnal and violent city which crimes are related to madness, organized crime and migration. Here underlies the notion that modernity, having as its prime locus the large cities, it is a factor that disrupts the social life leading the inhabitants of Gotham City to face a daily conflict with either criminals, madmen or immigrants. The city of Metropolis, in turn, faces technical problems and moral crimes, a daytime city of straight lines and buildings of modernist architectural styles always portrayed from panoramic images that highlight their buildings and gleaming skyscrapers, while Gotham is represented as a city with a dark outline of monolithic buildings repeated without distinction on the horizon. Cities of comics are representations that either fictional, utopian or dystopian they may be, are related to the imagery time and society in which they were created. This dissertation comprises Gotham City and Metropolis as synthesis of modern urban concepts, relating them to urban conceptions present in the first decades of the twentieth century and with issues exposed by the social thought of the Chicago School of Sociology.