The use of Graphic Novels as an Educational Tool - Research Paper Example

The use of Graphic Novels as an Educational Tool Introduction: Comics, or graphic novel, an extremely popular art form of the modern times, are widely considered as an essential companion for children and teens. Due to its abundant use of imagery, incorporation of fantasy materials and emphasis over basic emotions of both childhood and adolescence, comics, in the recent times, have created a separate range of appeal at the psychical level of youngsters. However there are several disputes regarding inception of comics as a special kind of art form in the modern world. Douglas Wolk observes in this context, “A whole subculture of comics expert spend their time debating what the first comics was, trying to find earlier and earlier examples of the form. One school of thought holds that the nineteenth-century Swiss Artist Rodolphe Topffer was the first cartoonist in the modern sense. Scott McCloud argues in Understanding Comics that the Bayeux Tapestry, which was probably created in the eleventh century, is an example of sequential visual narrative and therefore counts as comics” (Wolk 29). However, it seems that the audience remains unaffected by such scholarly debate over inception of comics as a separate art form; rather they are more concerned over deriving the pleasure of reading and involving themselves with the ambiance created through color, expression and beautifully crafted emotions. History of Graphic Novels or Manga: Prior to the Great War II, American comic market was mainly dominated by superheroes. However, the situation started changing gradually since the post Great War II period, as the Japanese Manga comics first intruded the market. At the initial stage heroes with humane attribute did not have capacity to combat the superheroes but it did not take much time that manga heroes emerged as triumphant against American superheroes. Another benefit of these Japanese manga comics was that those were highly appreciated by women and teenage girls section of the society. David Okum observes, “Japanese manga developed a strong following after World War II. The themes and stories reflect popular culture and national tastes….There is a wide audience of women, men, boys and that accepts comics and animation as just another medium of storytelling. Manga is produced for every possible group and interest” (Okum 8). No matter how much it is discussed about massive audience patronage in favor of the graphic novels or manga, but enormity of such popularity does not become clear unless we come across proper statistical data of the existing market condition of manga comics, “The gross sales from publishing in 2002 was 2.3 trillion yen. The total number of published materials including magazines was over 750 million. 22.6% of total sales, or 38.1% of published material sold in 2002 are of manga” (Fusanosuke 3). Collaboration of publishing companies regarding publication of manga comics commenced notably since the year 1986 onwards. Here it is important to mention that impact of these comics was further realized in the North American cities compared to the South, “While the other manga publishers have noted that the manga industry continues to be resilient in North America, though it’s definitely (and perhaps finally) coming to a time of adjustment, as is Hollywood and much of America in general due to the economy and other related international events” (Ong Pang Kean 2008). One of the main reasons behind huge success of the manga comics in the US market is lack of appreciation for typical US superhero comics among young US women and teenage girls. Compared to these American Superhero comics, manga, as the new genre of graphic novels attracted a great deal of favoritism from this section of the US mass. Tufts Napier, being overwhelmed with such response comments, “I have seen groups of girls gathered around the manga shelves at Borders and Barnes & Noble eagerly discussing their favorite manga," ...."They like it because it fills a niche that American comics dont: Even though the stories can be fantasy or science fiction, the characters are very human….” (Wiseman 2007). Presence of such human attribute among the heroes of manga comics make them identifiable with the general people in the society and this part is very much missing among the superheroes because they belong to their own world with their “superhero image”, completely untouched by the general people. Consequently, detachment of US comic book lovers with the superheroes went on increasing, making access for the manga comics easier. Despite such huge popularity of graphic novels and manga among American youths, initially, no such serious attempts were observed on part of the US academic institutions as a medium of education; however, there were several scholarly arguments in support of the observation that graphic novels and cartoons can be used as an effective medium of education and tool for communication in the academic context, especially when it comes to provide instructions to children and adolescents (Barron 48). While in the United States, graphic novels or comics re observed to a large extent as an effective source of doing business, in Japan, the birthplace of manga, apart from using it with business perspective, the social governance has used cartoons to communicate with people at every sphere of social existence: “The Japanese have seriously taken the comic book seriously. In fact, comic books are one of the largest portions of Japan’s publishing industry. However, in addition to the full range of military, sci-fi fantasy, and humorous comic books, Japan uses the medium to communicate with and inform its population on very complex issues” (Barron 49). Thus, the history of graphic novels or manga shows from a historical perspective that emergence of the art form did not occur only for the purpose of childhood and adolescent aesthetic or fantasia satisfaction; rather, like all other forms of art, on a broader plain, it can contribute to a large extent by acting as a medium of communication, conveying an issue of serious importance to the target audience according to importance of the situation and with details of the proper means that can solve the situation. Popularity of manga: Foreign derivations become an integral part of the daily existence of a particular culture or a society only when people belonging to that society accept those things as a part of their daily existence. At the same time, the process of accepting foreign culture as a part of the native societal outlook is a quite lengthy process. In case of Japanese manga comics, however, quite surprisingly, this general conventional approach does not apply. According to the historical references manga made its appearance for the first time during the Second World War as a method in the hands of Japanese army to demoralize the opponents (Gravett 154). The way in the next six decades manga comics has become an essential part of the American comic book lovers is surely a magnificent journey. Not only characters of these comic books influenced American citizens with their heroic attributes shrouded beneath layers of their human qualities but also the fundamental traits of Japanese culture into the American cultural outlook. American superheroes are so different and distance from the common people that they have never been able to identify themselves with those but the Japanese manga heroes are making the common people believe that in every human being there is a hero and they are capable enough the change the course of their lives by themselves. How pervasive is the influence of Japanese manga in the daily course of common people’s lives? Manga has already spread beyond the realm of their conventional inception, “…manga are spreading beyond the subculture cool of club flyers, computer games, music videos and fashion mannequins….” (Gravett 152). In the 2002 Football World Cup Competition the main sponsors used manga football graphics to symbolize their brand coverage. Most of the advertising agencies and art directing companies are focusing over to derive inspiration from manga graphical approaches, which they think is a major way towards achieving their commercial success. Teenagers, mainly girls, are highly focused over such manga style and they often govern daily course of their actions just in manner as it has been projected in the colorful pages of comic books. If we go through Gary Picariello’s definition of manga, we find an impression about reasons that have made manga one of the most appreciated form of art in the present US cultural trend, “Manga is the comic books richly illustrated Japanese cousin - exploding with adolescent strife and romance, often written with a dose of the supernatural….” (Picariello 2006). Though this definition we come across three important aspects, namely, adolescent strife, romance and elements of supernatural. Now, if we look deep into actual social context of the US, we will find that the US youth are highly fascinated by each of these three aspects. As plot of the manga storytelling technique is replete with these three materials, quite expectedly, these comics have created a sensation among the US young generation, “Manga ... has never tried to camouflage what it does best: telling everyday tales of growing up, falling in love and dealing with the challenges of everyday life. Thats not to say that Manga doesnt have its share of warriors and blade-wielding superheroes” (Picariello 2006). In the US media sector also Japanese manga is gradually becoming a major source for attracting mass attention. Use of manga “as one of the best ways to reach mass audience and shape their opinions” has long been adopted in the Japanese context and in that country manga has already received “nearly the same social status as novels and films” (Edwards 19). In the United States, may be the situation is not that pervasive but it is quite explicit that quite soon manga style will determine the orientation of teenage lifestyle. Pondering over the way manga has been fused into American cultural outlook for teenagers, Mike Edwards has observed, “Often they underwrite ‘serious’ literature and influence art and literature in much the same way that pop art did in the 1960s or punk in the 1980s in the UK” (Edwards 19). Thus, it can be said, that the way manga comics has impacted cultural outlook of the United States young generation, it has definitely made roots of cultural tends between these two nations stronger. Consequently, it can also be regarded as a great avenue for celebrating cultural flow between the United States of America and Japan. Benefits of Graphic novel or manga: One of the most important characteristics of the manga comics is its abundant use of imagery, symbolism and providing the reader with liberty to interpret those images. In the Western Cultural discourse there was a common conception that images can be read or interpreted only when it will be attached with proper and adequate textual interpretation. However, limitation of such observation has perfectly been pointed out by the manga art form, “Japanese manga comics … are remarkably caption free, compared with Western comics and graphic novels. Reading manga means reading images – and this is the convention because of the general literacies among its audiences of cinematographic techniques, juxtaposition of features, representation of movement and so on” (Schirato and Webb 99). Such observation clearly explains that manga comics, within its limited scope, incorporate manifold aspects that facilitate readers to derive a complete aesthetic pleasure. Precisely, the Japanese manga are actually true reflection and appreciation of both childhood and adolescent sentimentalities that often remain unrecognized by the mainstream society. It is through the comics, use of vigorous colors, flow of narrative style and real life depiction of the youth sentimentality American youth actually recognize their humanness, essence of their humane fulfillment. Robin E. Brenner, in his quest to find out the actual reason behind such huge appreciation of manga comics, conducted a research through his own websites, especially among the teenage girls of the United States. When they were asked this question, their reply was quite clear and specific, “…the most common answer were the art, the complex plots, the characters, the consistency and the “realistic “stories” (Brenner 40). It is quite interesting to observe that youngsters also have their own idea about realism and they are more inclined towards appreciating those reading materials that provide them with impression of their desired realism. It may sound quite exaggerated from the perspective of the teens but the fact cannot be denied that special treatment of males and implicit support of male supremacy through the superheroes is another reason that American comics are gradually falling behind their manga counterparts. In case of manga comics, however, there is ample scope for readers to speculate themselves in their own ways though their favorite characters. Unlike the typical American superhero comics, the Japanese manga storytelling technique not only focuses over the protagonist but over all the characters also in a quite individualistic manner. Hence each of the characters receives a scope to flourish in their own ways and reach to the level of receiving personalized attention from readers according to their psychological set up. How to enhance the rate of acceptance among people so that Graphic novels or manga can be used as an effective education tool: In order to attain the objective of using manga or graphic novels as an effective medium of communication and tool for education, the primary aspect of importance is to raise the art form to the level of widest acceptance. The American demographical diversity regarding acceptance of manga or graphic novels is a major obstacle against attaining the goal. It has already been mentioned that manga comics are more popular among females, compared to American males. The progression of time shows more number of males is attracted towards this specific form of art, yet, a large section of the society remains unaffected by its appeal. In this context, the comic book clubs are of immense importance to increase the level of acceptance among potential readers. The critical thinking capacity of children regarding their upbringing and various traits of their daily existence finds fulfillment through graphic novels and comics (Seelow 58). Thus, the more scope will be provided to children and youths to find the connection between their daily existence and tales of comic books, the possibility of accepting comics and cartoons as medium of education becomes stronger. However, in this context, a librarian or academic institution authorities are required to consider that the kind of comics should be made parts of the curriculum, because some of such graphic novels portray the aspects related to erotic fantasy to a great extent and reading those can always create negative impact on the audience (Barron 49). In addition to the benefits of graphic novels as a medium of communication, a student’s analytical perspective towards education, which is not only focused entirely over academic achievements, rather nourishment of his analytical outlook can be encouraged through graphic novels. A teacher’s responsibility lies in the fact that he should help a student to develop inquisitiveness and encourage him to judge a situation only after adequate questioning of the situation (Versaci 61-62). The visual narrative perspective of graphic novels or manga has the capacity to emphasize children psychology on this note and helping them to elaborate their analytical outlook towards different situations of life. On a long run, such analytical perspective empower a child to decide whether he should accept a situation just the way it is coming to him or he is required to be a part of the situation after finding means to avoid certain aspects that can prove to be harmful. Conclusion: How Educating values and perspectives of life becomes evident through Graphic novels or manga As both American and manga comics are extremely popular among children of both nations, those are also regarded as an effective medium to inject the basic essence of socio-cultural values among them. Why comics are considered important in this aspect and children are chosen as the targeted audience? If we compare between childhood and adult psychical structure we will see the while children offer a great deal of scope to learn, the adults always put the barriers of their respective logical restrains over such path of learning process. In this era of moral devaluation and social disintegration, it is very important that people are taught about basic values that have been ignored immensely since the post Great War II period. If children are taught accordingly about these aspects, then the human civilization can surely aspire for a better future and social existence. Naturally comic books have been made the way of conveying such thoughts as children have a tendency to identify themselves with their comic book idols. Technically, both American comics and manga depend over certain common features to convey their respective socio-cultural values among children, namely, “pictures…words…balloons … and frames….” (Steinberg, Parmar and Richard 200). Despite each of these aspects are used by American graphic novel writers, but they are more focused over reaching the audience through textual elaboration, whereas Japanese manga cater the traits of social-cultural values through visual narrative. Values actually comprise essential human virtues that are actually not verbose in nature; rather need to be perceived. Visual effects, actions of characters are the best way to elucidate those aspects or inspire a person to follow paths of such values. The same attempt, whenever it is made through textual depiction, does not appeal audience to the equal extent. In this context of defining values, Jerome L. Singer has observed more specifically that, “…manga portray a more complex and realistic view of life. In manga the death of a major character is frequently portrayed, whereas in American comics the topic is typically avoided. Manga often portray adults at work … an area of life that is nearly invisible in American comics” (Singer 36). This simple yet elaborate observation actually has pointed out to the fact that a human being, even though he has become a superhero, cannot be always immortal. If he is choosing to fight for certain values, he surely has to make a lot of sacrifices; sometimes his own life also. Death is an inescapable fact of life. Moreover, through death of a major character, way emotional catharsis of the audience is done through manga, it is entirely missing in the American superhero comics. Finally, the manga comics, through portrayal of their real life heroes actually convey the message of inevitability to the readers. No matter how strong or capable a person is, he has to pass through all the ordeals that a human being is destined to face. This is how, actually, the process of living life is done, and this is how we celebrate our humanness. This is the greatest value, the greatest lesson that we all need to learn in every step of our lives. In this context manga comics have defined life and its values in a more elaborate, yet extremely explicit manner. Works Cited Barron, Daniel D. “Zap! Pow! Wham!: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Education”. School Library Media Activities Monthly. Vol. VIII. 3/ November 1991. Baltimore, Maryland. Brenner, Robin E. Understanding manga and anime. California: Libraries Unlimited. 2007. Edwards, Mike. Key ideas in media. London: Nelson Thornes. 2003. Fusanosuke, Natsume. “Japanese Manga: Its Expression and Popularity”. ABD 2003 Vol. 34 No. 1. Gravett, Paul. Manga: sixty years of Japanese comics. London: Laurence King Publishing. 2004. Okum, David. Manga Madness. Cincinnati : North Light Books. 2004. Ong Pang Kean, Benjamin.“Changing Manga Scene - Where Does Viz Stand?” July 14, 2008. Available at: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080714-Kodansha3.html. Retrieved on: Aug 27, 2010. Picariello, Gary. “Japanese Manga and the ONE Thing American Comic Book Publishers CRAVE: A Female Readership”. Associated Content. December 30, 2006. Available at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/107471/japanese_manga_and_the_one_thing_american_pg2.html?cat=38. Retrieved on: Aug 27, 2010. Richard, Birgit. Parmar, Priya. and Steinberg, Shirley R. Contemporary youth culture: an international encyclopedia, Volume 2. California: Greenwood Publishing Group. 2006. Schirato, Tony and Webb, Jen. Reading the Visual. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 2004. Seelow, David. “The Graphic Novel as Advanced Literary Tool.” The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education 2:1 (2010) 57-64. Singer, Jerome L. Handbook of children and the media. London: SAGE, 2000. Versaci, Rocco. “How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher’s Perspective.” The English Journal. Vol. 91. 2. (November 2001). Pp. 61-67. Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. Wiseman, Paul. “Manga comics losing longtime hold on Japan”. USA TODAY. October 18, 2007. Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-18-manga_N.htm. Retrieved on: Aug 27, 2010. Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics: how graphic novels work and what they mean. Cambridge: Da Capo Press. 2007. Read More