AMES3256: Graphic Novels: Conflict, Peace and Protest

This course will examine a particular medium—graphic novel—which is inherently rich in visual, narrative, and linguistic components. The materials chosen for this course are driven by wars and conflicts in the following four regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Through these selected works, we will explore histories of political conflicts, state violence, anticipation for peace as well as understandings and praxes of protest in various forms, namely, social movements; mourning; remembrance; art making; and writing. Given the nature of conflict that always goes above and beyond the question of nation-state, this course will also discuss its amplification to the question of migration, refugee crisis, displacement, and multi-generational trauma among diasporic subjects. Located at the intersection of conflict, peace, and protest, this course not only introduces students to historical processes and complexities of these conflicts—both from the national and international points of view—but also challenges students to question the potentials of graphic novels in mediating these histories and discourses around human rights for readers. Finally, this class explores ways in which we can engage with each other via our shared history and vulnerability, and questions whether peace and resolution promised to our generation via the discourse of human rights are, or will ever be, attainable.

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