The Rise of the Graphic Novel
Computational Criticism and the Evolution of Literary Value

Using digital methods, this book traces the emergence of the graphic novel at the intersection of popular and literary culture.

Alexander Dunst (Author)

9781009182935, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 July 2023

280 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.485 kg

Bringing digital humanities methods to the study of comics, this monograph traces the emergence of the graphic novel at the intersection of popular and literary culture. Based on a representative corpus of over 250 graphic novels from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, it shows how the genre has built on the visual style of comics while adopting selected features of the contemporary novel. This argument positions the graphic novel as a crucial case study for our understanding of twenty-first-century culture. More than simply a niche format, graphic novels demonstrate how contemporary literature reworks elements of genre narrative, reconfiguring rather than abolishing distinctions between high and low. The book also puts forward a new historical periodization for the graphic novel, centered on integration into the literary marketplace and leading to an explosive growth in page length and a diversification of aesthetic styles.

Preface
1. Introduction: Computational Criticism and the Transformation of Comics
2. How We Read Comics Now: Graphic Narrative Beyond Close Reading
3. Time, Color, and Cultural Capital in Graphic Narrative
4. Novel Values: The Density of the Comic Book as Graphic Novel
5. The Social Imagination of Graphic Narrative
6. Conclusion: The Contact Zones of Contemporary Literature.

Subject Areas: Literary theory [DSA]