By Jordan Pietrafitta ~
On Tuesday, October 10th, I had the pleasure of sitting in on ENGL 304, an honors Graphic Memoir class taught by Professor Elizabeth Kadetsky, and I was in for a treat. When I walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was the classroom setup: there were seven students gathered around a clump of desks that were organized into a table.
As a part of the class, students are expected to learn the ins and outs of creating their own graphic memoirs. They read a series of various graphic memoirs/memoir-like materials and work with the required course textbook, Making Comics by Scott McCloud, in order to learn different techniques and skills to create their own amazing pieces.
In addition to the required class textbook, students in ENGL 304 read many examples of graphic memoirs, including Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, The Imposter’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell, and Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey by GB Tran.
Each student was working on his or her personal graphic memoir and prepared to present them to be critiqued during the class period. They presented the current contents of their memoirs, and then their classmates provided constructive criticism about their images, words, and style choices to help them make improvements.
It was really amazing to observe everyone’s personal creative styles and hear their stories. Many of the students talked about prominent life events that are very personal to them, usually involving their immediate families, specifically parents and grandparents. I loved being able to hear why people made the stylistic choices that they did and being able to hear the insightful responses that every classmate had about the memoirs.
I never realized just how much work went into the creation of comic books and graphic memoirs and novels. So many decisions need to be made, including how colors are used, what stories are portrayed, and whether or not the comics should utilize boxes to frame the artwork and words.
The choices to use a different intensity of colors to emphasize intensity of a moment and to use colors to emphasize other important aspects of the graphic memoir are some things that truly deserve to be recognized. Color can be used as a transition between life events or variations in time, specifically when marking a definite change in a person’s life, such as changing the colors used for childhood when transitioning to adulthood. It’s so interesting to see how each person uses these elements to enhance the meaning of his or her story and to truly pack in as much meaning as possible.
All of the stories are very personal, so it’s amazing to witness the strength of each student in the class. Sharing personal stories publicly is something that’s never easy, therefore it’s especially inspirational that they’re sharing what they’re sharing in front of a group of people.
As an observer, it was distinctly amazing to see how invested the class was in everyone’s individual graphic memoirs and to see how close everyone in the class is with one another. Everyone loved seeing how much progress each person was making and how he or she was able to improve. The sense of pride that was shared by everyone when the graphic memoirs were shared was absolutely awesome to watch, and it really caused me to admire the closeness that a class can to bring students.
I would truly recommend looking into taking this class in the future because of the sense of community it brings and the opportunity to meet new people and express yourself there is. If you’re lucky enough to be a member of the Schreyer Honors College, you should definitely keep an eye out for this class; it’s such a unique outlet to tell your story and expand your mind through a unique creative opportunity.