(Re)producing difference: the pedagogy of graphic narratives for critical visual literacy (original) (raw)
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The book is an edited volume made of three sections, each divided into several chapters. The first section focuses on different possibilities for the adoption of sequential art in the classroom, from introductory to advanced composition writing. In the second section, the graphic novel is foregrounded as a unique literary genre where the editor makes reference to authors who advocate graphic novels to be regarded as literature in their own right. The third section is concerned with graphic novels' potential for triggering discussions that create opportunities for students to gain insights into the notions of social justice, identity, and empathy. In the introductory chapter of the book, which is a collection of essays on the use of graphic novels in the English classrooms, Burger enumerates the outstanding benefits of teaching graphic novels such as engaging reluctant readers, encouraging students to view familiar knowledge from a new perspective, activating, and developing students' multiple literacy skills due to the inextricable combination of text and image in graphic novels. In this collection, the editor has attempted to feature essays that provide specific examples and in-depth assignment overviews which could be incorporated into educational settings. Given the enumerable instances of implementing graphical novels into English classrooms, the editor hopes that the present collection of essays would convince the readers to move towards various other pedagogical possibilities for further multimodal engagement. However, it would be highly desirable to have addressed the biggest barriers in integrating graphic novels in secondary content classrooms, the distinct literacies needed to read graphic novels, and to draw up clear Content list available at http://ijltr.urmia.ac.ir