Enrichment Lecture- “The Graphic Novel: An Introduction” by Prof. Pramod K Nayar

The Department of English organized a virtual enrichment lecture for its UG and PG students with Prof. Pramod K Nayar on 27 April 2020, on “The Graphic Novel: An Introduction”. Prof. Nayar began by establishing what the Graphic Novel is, emphasizing the fact that it is a medium and not a genre. He went on to tracing the history of the Graphic Novel, especially focusing on how it has evolved from the comic book, which in turn had emerged from the comic strip. Initially considered frivolous and inappropriate for the treatment of serious matters, the medium of the graphic novel today  has developed into a highly valued literary form.

Much of the lecture also dwelt on the elements of its structure such as gutters, bleeds, dialogue boxes, as well the way authors experiment with panels by making the linearity of time subjective. The authorship of such novels was also discussed for its collaborative nature, with different individuals performing the various roles of drawing, inking, colouring, writing and linking all of these coherently. The intricacy of the text adds to the text’s symbolic quality with illustrations providing visual cues to the reading of the novel, accounting also - at times - for graphic symbolism. Prof. Nayar also cited the examples of a number of seminal works of this medium such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers; Natarajan and Anand’s Bhimayana; and, Joe Sacco's Palestine, among others.

In the end, the lecture closed with Prof. Nayar touching upon the avant garde idea of Graphic Medicine in which graphic novels and comics have been employed in medical education and patient care. This was followed by a round of questions, answers and observations from the student body and the faculty members on the medium as a new pedagogic tool requiring multi-modal literacy as a pre-requisite.