Spring 2026 class: AAST398T/ENGL378J
Orrin Wang, Section 0101
MW 2-3:15
Prerequisites: None
Details from Instructor: This course will explore the history and present state of the Asian American graphic novel. Asian American identity has long been tied to graphic images of who or what an Asian American is, often in stereotypical, caricatured terms. Contemporary Asian American graphic artists have not rejected but reworked that relation between Asian American identity and pictorial depiction, tying it to the autobiographical and other representational possibilities of the graphic novel to create a compelling archive of work expressing the Asian American experience in all its varied and contradictory forms. Focusing on the works of contemporary Asian American graphic novelists, such as Mine Okubu, Adrian Tomine, and Gene Luen Yang, the class will study their pictorial technique and their use of such literary styles as naturalism and magic realism, and ponder how they each grapple with the question of how to image the Asian American today. Requirements: papers, journals, and a final exam.
Repeatable to: 12 credits if content differs.
Cross-listed with: AAST398T
Credit only granted for: AAST398T or ENGL378J
