Graphic Novels as Cultural Artifacts at NeMLA
Graphic novels, due to their nature as both visual and verbal texts, occupy a fertile ground for expression. As Jonathan C. Evans and Thomas Giddens stated in Cultural Excavation and Formal Expression in the Graphic Novel (2013), “The graphic novel is a tool: of self-expression and personal identity; of cultural understanding and philosophical exploration; of history and hope. Comics and graphic novels traverse themes such as heroism, identity, philosophy, gender, history, and colonialism.” As examples, works like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Lynda J. Barry’s One Hundred Demons illustrate how graphic novels speak to their audiences through the juxtaposition of image and words.