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Summary:

"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"--Publisher's description.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: History, metafiction, and the affective power of graphic narratives
• Being a dog : transformation, focalization, and memory in Deogratias
• Just like Sally : rape and reflexivity in Watchmen
• "We're still here" : authenticity and memory in Scalped
• My children will remember all of the things I tried to forget : Bayou and intergenerational trauma
• Telling the wound : framing and restricted narration in Hellblazer
• Conclusion: (The) moving past.

Author/Creator:

Polak, Kate (Assistant professor of English) , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Ethics in the gutter: empathy and historical fiction in comics [by Polak, K.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Ethics in the gutter [by Polak, K.] (Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2017] — ISBN 9780814213537; LCCN 2017025900; OCLC Number 980202787)

Related Series:

Studies in comics and cartoons

Subjects:

Comic books, strips, etc. — History and criticism

Graphic novels — History and criticism

Violence in comics — Moral and ethical aspects

History in comics — Moral and ethical aspects

History, Modern, in comics — Moral and ethical aspects

Comic books, strips, etc. — Philosophy

Empathy in literature

Historical fiction — History and criticism

Comic books, strips, etc.

Graphic novels

Violence in comics

History in comics

History, Modern, in comics

Historical fiction

Genres:

Comics criticism

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-229) and index.
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 238 pages) : illustrations.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

PN6710 .P65 2017eb

ISBNs:

9780814275894 (electronic bk.)
0814275893 (electronic bk.)
9780814213537 [Invalid]
0814213537 [Invalid]
9780814254455 [Invalid]
0814254454 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1006381101