'Comics versus books: the new criticism at the 'fin de siècle'.
- Submitting institution
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University of the Arts, London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 238
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
-
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- Book title
- Transforming Anthony Trollope
- Publisher
- Leuven University Press
- ISBN
- 9789462700413
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- August
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The chapter argues that the 19th-century debate about the ‘worth’ of the new medium of comics was a key ingredient in the definition of ‘popular culture’. It critiques the idea that ‘literature’ and ‘comics’ were on different trajectories; one ‘improving’, the other ‘damaging’.
The interdisciplinary research spans comics studies, literary studies, media studies and art history, using concepts such as the “reader contract” (Barker, 1990) and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1984). Research methods combine close textual and visual analysis, and socio-economic and feminist critique.
The research asks why comics were seen as ‘lesser literature’ to books. Who judged them thus? What were the imagined prohibitions that kept the two forms apart? Why were they positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum of respectability?
Using new primary sources from the contemporary press, the chapter maps the first great age of comics criticism — and the first great age of prejudice against comics. The agendas of prominent cultural critics are interrogated via close readings of reviews and features (bringing to light the key role of Elizabeth Pennell). It concludes that fears around ‘comics versus books’ were a cyclical phenomenon, visible in panics about penny dreadfuls (1860s), horror comics (1950s) and manga (1990s). Arguments about literacy and taste continued to be markers of cultural capital.
The larger discourse involving the place of popular culture in society anticipated much modern thinking, via the Frankfurt School and the discipline of Cultural Studies. The fact that comics were at the centre of this discussion represents the chapter’s main finding. The chapter was peer-reviewed.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -