The Graphic Narrative has its roots in the strongly autobiographical   comics that emerged during the 70s and 80s.  It has burgeoned into an ever-growing field of study amid a broad constituency, including a diverse popular audience, Humanities scholars, as well as medical and health professionals, among others. 

Comics, an umbrella term with various formats, provide an immediate visual engagement with the story at hand.  As cultural documents, they contribute to the chronicle of responses to and representations of experiences and events through not only visual narrative but through artifactual narrative as well.

Through the exploration of Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, we will bring together particular concepts of Memory Studies, The Graphic Narrative and Material Culture.

As a starting point, students will bring a favorite item to our first class meeting and tell its story. From there, we will move toward developing a short  narrative in a comics format drawing on assigned material and class discussions as well as the work of visual authors, Scott McCloud and Lynda Barry.