Discute a importância das histórias em quadrinhos na formação do gusto pela leitura, assim como da proficiência na compreensão das mensagens transmitidas tanto pelo código escrito como pelo visual, ou seja, dos elementos constituintes do letramento, abrindo possibilidades de inserção dos produtos da linguagem gráfica seqüencial nas práticas biblioteconômicas e pedagógicas atuais. Para o estabelecimento de analogias essenciais, a metodologia contemplou o estudo comparativo do panorama cultural brasileiro e europeu. Os resultados apontaram entre outras coisas, que as histórias em quadrinhos podem realmente ser relevantes na formação do leitor, possibilitando a familiarização, repetição, formação de hábitos e obtenção de prazer no ato de ler. / Discusses the importance of comics in the acquisitions of reading preferences, as well as in the literacy of the messages communicated both by the written and the visual codes, or rather, of the elements that concur to literacy, creating possibilities for including graphic sequential art products into the domain of library sciences and of the pedagogical practices. For establishing essential analogies, the methodology focused on the comparative study of the Brazilian and European cultural contexts. Among other things, the results confirmed that comics can really be relevant to the readers education, making possible the familiarity, repetition, habit creation and the obtention of pleasure in the act of reading.

This essay aims to analyze if the graphic novel Watchmen criticizes the conventions of the superhero comic genre in regards to gender. The literary theory applied is gender studies. The essay examines the visual portrayal of male and female characters, as well as the male-dominated narrative. The novel does, to some extent, satirize the genre conventions. This can be seen in the hyperbolic visual portrayals of the characters, as well as the comments made on them. However, as there is a lack of self-aware criticism, the novel could not be considered as a satire of the visual representation of genders within the genre, but rather a reinforcement of them. Furthermore, the male-dominated narrative is present in Watchmen, and Laurie could be seen as satirizing this genre convention, as she is a hyperbolic interpretation of the girlfriend archetype. However, there is little change or self-aware critique against the genre norms here as well, thus it cannot be considered satire. Laurie does, however, show criticism of the violence against women within the genre by making a number of comments on the attempted rape of her mother. This may not be satire but she does provide commentary of this trope. In conclusion, while there are instances of criticism, the novel as a whole cannot be considered satire of the superhero genre.

En Europe francophone, la définition de la bande dessinée s'effectue aujourd'hui à l'aune de la qualification artistique. Comme objet culturel, les représentations de la bande dessinée contribuent à l'organisation de l'activité en fonction de l'opposition classique entre reconnaissance artistique et reconnaissance professionnelle. Cette opposition modifie la qualification de l'objet et de sa personnalité autour de laquelle se structurent différents types d'activité, de celle des commentateurs à celle des producteurs. Le processus de construction historique d'une qualification artistique de la bande dessinée s'oppose à la reconstitution du processus de professionnalisation de ses acteurs du même point de vue. D'autre part, cette opposition se traduit dans la sphère de la production dans l'apprentissage de savoir-faire spécifiques permettant de réduire la tension des valeurs contradictoires en jeu dans l'activité. L'articulation des enjeux contradictoires de l'artification et de la professionnalisation dans l'expérience de l'attachement à l'activité met en jeu une conception de l'identité personnelle qui se déploie en marge des bandes dessinées. / In the European French-speaking area, the definition of comics requires nowadays an artistic qualification. As cultural objects, comics' representations contribute to the organization of activities following the classical opposition between artistic and professional recognitions. This opposition transforms the qualification of the object and its personality, around which different kinds of activities of both the commentator's one and the producer's one, are organized. The historical processes of artistic elaboration go against the reconstruction of the actor's professionalization processes on the same historical grounds. In addition, this opposition implies the learning of some practical knowledges in the productive area in order to reduce the tension between contradictory values at stake in the activity. The articulation of contradictory aims or goals in experiencing attachment towards the activity (i.e. relating, on the one hand, to the “artification” and, on the other hand, to the professionalization) involves a conception of personal identity which is open out along comics' margins.

The Living Chain is a body of work built to apply and analyze mythological narrative and traditional printmaking techniques. The work is a collection of prints telling an original narrative that derives much of its visual and thematic style from the works of the Baroque and Medieval periods, as well as significant influence from the prints of Gustave Doré. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideas, mythologies, histories, and symbols found in and inspiring the work, in order to better understand the work’s purpose and its technical challenges. Additional focus is given to the historical significance and cultural impact of meaningful, mythological narratives and the differences between modern and historic narratives told through sequential works of art.

Cette thèse doctorale analyse la représentation de la guerre civile espagnole dans les bandes dessinées publiées en Espagne et dans le reste du monde entre 1976 et 2015, soit environ 350œuvres et un peu plus de 7000 pages consacrées au conflit. La spécificité du média et la taille du corpus imposent un retour théorique sur la communication par la bande dessinée, sur sa transmission du sens et sur ses modes de confrontation des représentations de l'auteur et du lecteur. Ceci conduit à proposer une méthode standardisée d'analyse statistique fondée sur un vocabulaire et une grammaire de l'image spécifiques au contenu traité, analogue à la lexicométrie pour le texte. Les résultats structurent le corpus en trois dimensions principales stables et indépendantes : le degré de provocation du lecteur (entre raconter la guerre et susciter la réflexion, l'émotion ou l'engagement), la légitimité du conflit (entre un combat juste et une guerre folie qu'aucune raison ne peut justifier) et la polémique (deux Espagne qui s'affrontent encore). Ces résultats mettent aussi en évidence des différences et des évolutions significatives de la représentation du conflit espagnol compatibles avec les conclusions des travaux sur la mémoire du conflit menés à partir d'autres matériaux historiques et culturels. La période étudiée se divise ainsi en phases de construction, de cristallisation et d'abandon d'une première représentation du conflit entre les années 70 et 90, puis de construction et de cristallisation d'une seconde représentation plus polémique à partir de la seconde moitié des années 90 et dans les années 2000. La bande dessinée montre enfin que certains aspects de la guerre, comme la violence aux civils, le rôle de l'Église, la prison et l'exil, la place de la République dans le conflit, sont des thèmes encore non conclus. À la fois récits d'histoire et objets historiques, les bandes dessinées nous renseignent ainsi non seulement sur la guerre civile espagnole, mais aussi sur les sociétés et les époques qui se la remémorent / This doctoral thesis analyzes the representation of the Spanish civil war in comics published in Spain and over the world between 1976 and 2015, i.e. about 350 comics and more than 7000 pages dedicated to the conflict. The specificity of the media as well as the size of the sample require investigating some theoretical issues such as the way comics communicate, transmit meaning and confront author's and reader's representations. This leads to propose a standardized method of statistical analysis build on the creation of topic-related lexicon and grammar for comic images,comparable to text data-mining. Results structure the corpus according to three main stable and independent dimensions: the degree of provocation of the reader (between only recording events and sparking thought, emotion or commitment), the legitimacy of the conflict (between a just fight and a mad war that no reason can justify) and polemics (two still opposed Spains). These results also point out significant differences and evolutions of the representation of the Spanish war,compatible with the conclusions of other works about the memory of the conflict based on different historical and cultural sources. Studied period can be divided into times of construction, crystallization and abandonment of a first representation between the 70s and the mid-90s, then of construction and crystallization of a second more polemical representation from the second half of the 90s to nowadays. Comics also show that some aspects of the war, such as violence towards civilians, the role of Catholic church, prison and exile, the place of the Republic during the conflict, are still inconclusive. Being both historical records and historic objects, comics inform us not only on the Spanish civil war, but also on the societies and times that remember it

Manga, or Japanese comic books, are one of the newest popular media imports from Japan to garner a sizable following in the U.S. Shortly before the establishment of an American manga publishing industry and the investment in resources to publish manga legally, fans calling themselves scanslators or scanlators (scan + translators) began translating Japanese manga themselves and distributing it to other fans through the Internet. This dissertation focuses on the manga importation process from several different angles, comparing within each the struggles and similarities between the actions and motives of scanslators and publishers. Comparing and contrasting the practices and norms of scanslators with those of the American manga publishing industry, this case study will provide insight into the ways that fans of transnational texts are involved in a system of global media flows whose paths are determined by legal, cultural, economic, and political forces. This work focuses on three stages in the manga importation process: selection, translation, and distribution. This study is based on the textual analysis of trade journal articles and web sites, informed by interviews with scanslators and manga industry workers. I conducted interviews over a six-month period in 2008, focusing on two groups, the publishing company Tokyopop and the scanslation group "Paradise." I carried out follow-up interviews a year later. I supplemented these interviews with interviews from freelance manga translators. I demonstrate principles influencing the flow of other kinds of media across borders. Manga serves as a prime example of the rise and transformation of a genre in the book market, and more broadly as a form of media. This case also serves as a snapshot of a moment of change within the publishing industries as they move towards increased digitization.

This dissertation will argue that, rather than simply reflecting the religious worldviews of his creators and readers, the presentations of Superman that span more than 75 years in a variety of mass media, have produced a mythology, iconography, ethical code, and set of practices that reflects a dynamic relationship with the complex religious systems in the United States. Obviously, the presentation of Superman by his creators and the reception of Superman by his readers are heavily influenced by Christianity, Judaism, and American civil religion (he does, after all, represent “truth, justice, and the American way”) along with many other religious worldviews. It explores the dynamic and complex interactions between Superman and his fans and show that the figure of Superman is utilized by his fans to understand theological and ethical issues, while, at the same time, their understanding of Superman shapes those theological and ethical opinions and ideas. American religious traditions influence the popular images and representations of Superman, but Superman also influences the understanding religious traditions across a breadth of historical and cultural contexts. Superman’s state of multiple expressions of permanent liminality allows the character and his stories to be useful sites for people to perform the religious work of constructing, strengthening, and/or negotiating boundaries between categories, such as the human and the divine or the secular and the religious. It is through these boundaries that people define and interpret their religious worldviews.

<p>Denna undersökningen är ett försök att se hur mycket av ämnesundervisning, kursplan och kursmål som kan rymmas inom serietecknande som (undervisnings) metod. Genom att knyta an till elevers egen kulturkonsumtion hoppas jag kunna knyta an ny kunskap till det eleven redan är bekant med. Serier blir då här som en brygga mellan det de redan vet och det de ska lära. Arbetet genomförs genom undervisningsförsök som vetenskaplig metod och genom diskursanalys av seriemediet. Jag tycker mig se genom detta arbete att man ur det seriemassiga, serierna i sig och serierelaterat innehåll i allmänhet, kan skapa en pedagogisk metod för bildämnet.</p><p>Detta är ett s.k. alternativt examensarbete som innehåller en textdel och en gestaltande del. Den gestaltande delen är bilaga V. Detta examensarbete, inklusive den gestaltande delen, finns också webbpublicerat på http://www.estet.umu.se/alt.exarb/index.htm tillsammans med andra s.k. alternativa examensarbeten.</p>

This study attempts to establish the cross-currents of African American literary traditions and an emerging African American graphic novel aesthetic. A close analysis of the visuality foreground in the visual/textual space of the graphic novel will provide insight into how the form of the graphic novel reconciles and revises more traditional textual literary elements. Such motifs and tropes as the visuality of slave portraiture, Gates’ trope of the talking book, and the paradox of invisibility/visibility within African American creative registers will be used to highlight the creative tradition inaugurated by the African American graphic novel. Each of these elements generally associated with African American textual production, become central thematic concerns with the graphic work of artists such as Ho Che Anderson, Kyle Baker, Dwayne McDuffie, Roland Laird, Taneshia Laird, and Elihu Bey. From the historical biography of Anderson’s King and Baker’s Nat Turner, to the broad history of Laird, Laird, and Bey’s Still I Rise, and finally within the traditional superhero graphic novel of Dwayne McDuffie’s Icon, a definite tradition of African American graphic novels emerge. Understanding how these graphic novels associate themselves with, and ultimately revise, the literary aesthetics of African American texts makes possible the fuller examination of African American graphic novels as a specialized literary tradition.

Denne afhandling undersøger tegneseriens tilsyneladende simplicitet ved at afsløre nogle af de meningsskabende lag, der bliver skabt i et komplekst netværk med fokus på tid og rum deles tegneserien op i flere spatio-temporale lag, der alle interagerer i den måde hvorpå repræsentation, forestilling og erfaring bliver konstitueret i tegneserier. Afhandlingen anvender forskellige teoretiske tilgange i en undersøgelse af forskellige slags tegneserier på tværs af genrer og formater for at afsløre, hvordan tid og rum konstrueres i tegneserier. Jeg argumenterer for at "tid og rum i tegneserier" er en alt for bred betegnelse, og at vi har brug for at konceptualisere en multipel, spatio-temporal konstruktion, der tager højde for hvordan diegesens tids-rumlighed bliver repræsenteret gennem strukturens tids-rumlighed og hvordan den igen bliver aktiveret gennem læserens forestillingsevne. Afhandlingen indeholder 5 artikler og to essays, der alle diskuterer den generelle problemstilling på forskellig vis. Ved at anvende Mikhail M. Bakhtins begreb om kronotopen undersøger jeg hvordan sammenstillingen af flere spatio-temporale konstruktion forbinder sig i superhelteserien Top 10. Disse forbindelsertrækker på for læseren gennem erfaringer erkendte virkelige verdens tids-rumlighed, og jeg diskuterer, hvordan spatio-temporale strukturer fra diegesen kan påvirke vores opfattelse af virkeligheden gennem brug af Paul Ricoeurs tanker om fiktion. Afhandlingen undersøger også specifikke formelle elementer som fx helsiden og det sorte panel og deres effekter på tid og rum ved at sammenligne værker af forskellige kunstnere eller af samme forfatter. På baggrund heraf er der et specifikt kapitel, der analyserer tegneseriens struktur som et netværk ved at kombinere Thirry Groensteens tegneserieteori med Manuel De Landas begreb om assemblagen. Denne kombination anvendes efterfølgende i en analyse af den klassiske albumserie, Asterix. Afslutningsvist bliver tegneseriens strukturelle rum og dets relation til virkelighedens rum analyseret ved hjælp af Edward Sojas begreb om "Thirdspace" og Michel Foucaults "heterotopi" begreb.