Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies

History, Pedagogy, Theory

Edited by Lynn M. Kutch - Contributions by Vance Byrd; Matt Hambro; Joshua Kavaloski; Eckhard Kuhn-Osius; Antje Krueger; Jens Kußmann; Julia Ludewig; Bernadette Raedler; Brett Sterling and Jan Alexander van Nahl

Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies: History, Pedagogy, Theory gathers an international team of contributors from two continents whose innovative scholarship demonstrates a regard for comics and graphic novels as works of art in their own right. The contributions serve as models for further research that will continue to define the relationship between comics and other traditional “high art” forms, such as literature and the visual arts. Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies is the first English-language anthology that focuses exclusively on the graphic texts of German-speaking countries. In its breadth, this book functions as an important resource in a limited pool of critical works on German-language comics and graphic novels. The individual chapters differ significantly from one another in methodology, subject matter, and style. Taken together, however, they present a cross-section of comics and graphic novel scholarship being performed in North America and Europe today. Moreover, they help to secure a place for these works in a globalized culture of comics. This volume’s contributors have helped create a new critical language within which this rapidly expanding medium can be read and interpreted.

Lexington Books

Pages: 300 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-2622-7 • Hardback • June 2016 • $129.00 • (£99.00)

978-1-4985-2623-4 • eBook • June 2016 • $122.50 • (£95.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Media Studies, Literary Criticism / Comics & Graphic Novels, Literary Criticism / European / German

Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies

History, Pedagogy, Theory

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies: History, Pedagogy, Theory gathers an international team of contributors from two continents whose innovative scholarship demonstrates a regard for comics and graphic novels as works of art in their own right. The contributions serve as models for further research that will continue to define the relationship between comics and other traditional “high art” forms, such as literature and the visual arts. Novel Perspectives on German-Language Comics Studies is the first English-language anthology that focuses exclusively on the graphic texts of German-speaking countries. In its breadth, this book functions as an important resource in a limited pool of critical works on German-language comics and graphic novels. The individual chapters differ significantly from one another in methodology, subject matter, and style. Taken together, however, they present a cross-section of comics and graphic novel scholarship being performed in North America and Europe today. Moreover, they help to secure a place for these works in a globalized culture of comics. This volume’s contributors have helped create a new critical language within which this rapidly expanding medium can be read and interpreted.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 300 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-2622-7 • Hardback • June 2016 • $129.00 • (£99.00)

978-1-4985-2623-4 • eBook • June 2016 • $122.50 • (£95.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Media Studies, Literary Criticism / Comics & Graphic Novels, Literary Criticism / European / German

Author

Lynn M. Kutch is associate professor of German at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

Introduction
Lynn Marie Kutch
CONTEXTS AND HISTORIES
Chapter 1 - German Comics: Form, Content and Production
Matt Hambro
Chapter 2 - Before They Were “Art:” (West) German Proto-Comics and Comics: A Brief and Somewhat Subjective Survey
Eckhard Kuhn-Osius

GERMAN CULTURAL EDUCATION
Chapter 3 - Nothing but Exclamation Points? Comics in the Bavarian Academic High School
Jens Kußmann
Chapter 4 - The Book of Revelation as Graphic Novel: Reimagining the Bible in Present-Day Europe
Jan Alexander van Nahl

GRAPHIC NOVELS: HANDS-ON
Chapter 5 - Using Graphic Novels for Content Learning in the German-Studies Classroom: The Basel City Reportage Operation Läckerli
Julia Ludewig

Chapter 6 - “Show and Tell:” Using Graphic Novels for Teaching East German History in the Novice and Intermediate Foreign-Language German Classroom
Antje Krueger

GENERATIONS OF GERMAN HISTORY
Chapter 7 - Tensions Acrobatics in Comic Art: Line Hoven’s Liebe schaut weg
Bernadette Raedler
Chapter 8 - Perspectivity in Graphic Novels about War: Germany’s Bundeswehr Operation in Afghanistan
Joshua Kavaloski

AUSTRIAN VOICES
Chapter 9 - Cultural Legitimacy and Nicolas Mahler’s Autobiographical Comics
Vance Byrd
Chapter 10 - The Perfection of Imperfection: Nicolas Mahler’s Alte Meister
Brett Sterling
Chapter 11 - Patterns of Memory and Self-Confrontation in Gerald Hartwig’s Chamäleon
Lynn Marie Kutch

Reviews

For an English-language audience, this volume finds its niche foregrounding the developing discussion on German-language comics that began with editor Andreas Knigge’s volume Fortsetzung folgt.
— German Studies Review

A timely collection of excellent essays that combine historical investigation and close analysis of German-language comics with compelling suggestions for further research and teaching. Highly recommended!
— Daniel Stein, University of Siegen

This important look at comics and graphic novels of German origin is both remarkable and surprising. It offers historical and theoretical approaches for practical use. It makes also German scholars and teachers curious about our contemporary graphic literature.
— Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff, University of Frankfurt