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Krasniewicz Comic Life ANTH 2008 Showcase

In this course, students were required to analyze and compare two films using one of many theoretical concepts discussed in class (including theories of symbolism, metaphor, ritual, narrative, and culture). Instead of a traditional academic paper, students were required to present the material in a visual format. The concept behind the assignment was to help students understand the organization of ideas and images required to present information visually. This would not only encourage them to consider the films they were analyzing more carefully, but would help them experience the issues involved in translating ideas into images. Since more and more daily communication takes this form, this effort to advance the students' visual literacy has both academic and practical implications.

Options for the projects included creating film posters, video mashups that combined two films into one, board games, paintings, and websites. Most of the students had little production experience. Nineteen students created comic books, an unusual option because comics have historically had the reputation for simply being violent and adolescent, or containing vacuous and silly material. But many artists and writers have recently turned to comics and longer graphic novels to address issues like terrorism, racism, politics, violence and religion. The comic book format is ideal for analyzing films because movies and comics share a similar linear structure and a combination of dialogue, visual effects and discrete "shots" that are designed to tell a story for a popular audience. Six of the student-created comic books are showcased here:

Projects were graded on the basis of completing the steps of production (proposals, workshops, asset organization), effective application of the selected anthropological theory (in an accompanying 2-3 page essay), and communication of ideas through image-text combinations. The goal of the assignment was an expansion of the students' visual literacy; a delightful side effect was that many students took great pride and delight in producing something they had never attempted to do before. All the projects were shown to the class at the end of the semester and some are currently on display in the Penn Museum's academic wing.

Faculty Member: Louise Krasniewicz, PhD
Anthropologist and Senior Research Scientist
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, American Section