Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics
Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics explores an often-overlooked genre of graphic narratives: those that fictionalize historical realities. While autographics, particularly those that place the memoirist in the context of larger cultural conversations, have been the objects of sustained study, fictional graphic narratives that—as Linda Hutcheon has put it—both “enshrine and question” history are also an important area of study. By bringing narratology and psychological theory to bear on a range of graphic narratives, Kate Polak seeks to question how the form utilizes point of view and the gutter as ethical tools that shape the reader’s empathetic reactions to the content. 

This book’s most important questions surround how we receive and interpret representations of history, considering the ways in which what we think we know about historical atrocities can be at odds with the convoluted circumstances surrounding violence. Beginning with a new look at Watchmen, and including examinations of such popular series as Scalped and Hellblazer as well as Bayou and Deogratias, the book questions how graphic narratives create an alternative route by which to understand large-scale violence. Ethics in the Gutter explores how graphic narrative representations of violence can teach readers about the possibilities and limitations of empathy and ethics.
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Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics
Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics explores an often-overlooked genre of graphic narratives: those that fictionalize historical realities. While autographics, particularly those that place the memoirist in the context of larger cultural conversations, have been the objects of sustained study, fictional graphic narratives that—as Linda Hutcheon has put it—both “enshrine and question” history are also an important area of study. By bringing narratology and psychological theory to bear on a range of graphic narratives, Kate Polak seeks to question how the form utilizes point of view and the gutter as ethical tools that shape the reader’s empathetic reactions to the content. 

This book’s most important questions surround how we receive and interpret representations of history, considering the ways in which what we think we know about historical atrocities can be at odds with the convoluted circumstances surrounding violence. Beginning with a new look at Watchmen, and including examinations of such popular series as Scalped and Hellblazer as well as Bayou and Deogratias, the book questions how graphic narratives create an alternative route by which to understand large-scale violence. Ethics in the Gutter explores how graphic narrative representations of violence can teach readers about the possibilities and limitations of empathy and ethics.
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Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics

Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics

by Kate Polak
Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics

Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics

by Kate Polak

eBook

$35.95 

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Overview

Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics explores an often-overlooked genre of graphic narratives: those that fictionalize historical realities. While autographics, particularly those that place the memoirist in the context of larger cultural conversations, have been the objects of sustained study, fictional graphic narratives that—as Linda Hutcheon has put it—both “enshrine and question” history are also an important area of study. By bringing narratology and psychological theory to bear on a range of graphic narratives, Kate Polak seeks to question how the form utilizes point of view and the gutter as ethical tools that shape the reader’s empathetic reactions to the content. 

This book’s most important questions surround how we receive and interpret representations of history, considering the ways in which what we think we know about historical atrocities can be at odds with the convoluted circumstances surrounding violence. Beginning with a new look at Watchmen, and including examinations of such popular series as Scalped and Hellblazer as well as Bayou and Deogratias, the book questions how graphic narratives create an alternative route by which to understand large-scale violence. Ethics in the Gutter explores how graphic narrative representations of violence can teach readers about the possibilities and limitations of empathy and ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814275887
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Publication date: 10/28/2017
Series: Studies in Comics and Cartoons
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
File size: 8 MB

About the Author

Kate Polak is Assistant Professor of English at Wittenberg University.

Table of Contents

ETHICS IN THE GUTTER: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics Series Title Page Title Page Copyright Dedication CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION: HISTORY, METAFICTION, AND THE AFFECTIVE POWER OF GRAPHIC NARRATIVES REPRESENTING THE UNREPRESENTABLE SITUATING THE FORM THE ETHICAL SITUATION EMPATHY IS THE ENEMY FOCALIZATION MOVING FORWARD CHAPTER 1: BEING A DOG: Transformation, Focalization, and Memory in Deogratias THE IMAGE WITHIN THE PANEL TIME AND MEMORY THE BYSTANDER AND THE SCAVENGER FOCALIZING GUILT AND SHAME CHAPTER 2: JUST LIKE SALLY: Rape and Reflexivity in Watchmen WATCHMEN AND HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION RAPE JOKES SEEING WHAT YOU WANT LAURIE ON MARS WHO WATCHES? PERSPECTIVE AND OCCUPATION CHAPTER 3: “WE’RE STILL HERE”: Authenticity and Memory in Scalped NATIVE INTELLECT PINE RIDGE SHOOT-OUT BE(COME)ING “INDIAN” LIVING HISTORY CHAPTER 4: MY CHILDREN WILL REMEMBER ALL OF THE THINGS I TRIED TO FORGET: Bayou and Intergenerational Trauma MEMORY AS CURATION THROUGH THE BAYOU’S LOOKING GLASS “HAUNTED” OR STALKED? BILLY GLASS AND THE BUTTERFLY WINGS EMERGING FORGETTING CHAPTER 5: TELLING THE WOUND: Framing and Restricted Narration in Hellblazer CONTESTED SPACE: THE ANNIHILATION OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES VIOLATED MARGINS CONSTANTINE IN THE PIT THE “WHOLE STORY” CONCLUSION: (THE) MOVING PAST WORKS CITED INDEX STUDIES IN COMICS AND CARTOONS: LUCY SHELTON CASWELL AND JARED GARDNER, SERIES EDITORS
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