ENGL 4890 Indigenous Graphic Novels

Course Instructor: Brian I. Gillis

From ancient pictographs to nineteenth-century ledger art to contemporary comic books, indigenous writers have long relied on visual modes of narration to relay their stories. The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in the production of graphic novels by indigenous authors and about indigenous subjects. Still, few literary critics have taken the time to examine the works of these artists and writers. This course aims to correct that oversight by taking up a series of transindigenous graphic novels and comic books that are representative of this global phenomenon. Along the way, we will consider questions of genre, gender, indigenous identity, humor, and survivance in this ever emerging and evolving archive, and in particular, the ways in which these “artist-writers” meld text and image to reimagine the painful and ever-present legacy of settler colonialism.