Tentative Thesis:
I've been reading a lot of theory, and I think I have a good idea of what I am going to argue in my paper. My current step is going through all of The Sandman and make notes on the text. My tentative argument is this:
Any work that features characters living on the margins of society is susceptible to a queered reading. This is especially true for Neil Gaiman's fantasy comic series The Sandman, because the marginalized characters also find themselves living in the margins of reality. As these characters explore and interact with these diegetic queer (bizarre) spaces, the reader can simultaneously explore queer possibilities in the text.
Bibliography:
Chute, Hillary. "Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 123.2 (2008): 452-465. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO.
Web. 13 Oct. 2010.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, vol 1: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage, 1980. Print.
Groensteen, Thierry. The System of Comics. Trans. Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. Jackson: University of
Mississippi, 2007. Print.
Halberstam, Judith. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New
York UP, 2005. Print.
Hall, Donald E. Queer Theories. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Print.
Hatfield, Charles. Alternative Comics: an Emerging Literature. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2005. Print.
Mitchell, W. J. Thomas. "Beyond Comparison: Picture, Text, and Method." Picture Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994. 83-107. Print.
Sandman, The #1 – 75. Neal Gaiman (w), Alec Stevens, Bryan Talbot, Charles
Vess, Chris Bachalo, Colleen Doran, Dick Giordano, Duncan Eagleson,
Gary Amaro, George Pratt, Jill Thompson, John Bolton, John Watkiss,
Kelley Jones, Kent Williams, Malcolm Jones III, Matt Wagner, Michael
Zulli, Mike "Doc" Allred, Mike Dringenberg, P. Craig Russell, Sam Kieth,
Shawn McManus, Shea Anton Pensa, Stan Woch, Vince Locke, Dave
McKean (a), Todd Klein (letters), Karen Berger, Scott Nybakken, Shelly
Roeberg (ed). New York, NY, USA: DC Comics, January 1989 – March
1996.
[This citation will be narrowed down in the coming weeks, as I comb through all the issues]
Schuyler,
ReplyDeleteGood work on the sources. Your tentative thesis needs to be fleshed out. As it is now, it is vague and lacks specific direction. As you continue to read, try focusing in on a specific space/spaces or characters that you will argue exist outside of ____ normative space. Also, you mention that this opens up the text for the reader-- but be specific by qualifying this.