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  • 5 - “Great” American Graphic Novels

  • from Part I - History and Genre
  • Edited by Jan Baetens, KU Leuven, Belgium, Hugo Frey, University of Chichester, Fabrice Leroy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel
    Published online:
    10 January 2024
    Print publication:
    28 September 2023, pp 89-105

  • Summary

    This chapter addresses the graphic novel as a new form of the “Great American Novel” (GAN). This possibility is seen as the result of two interacting processes: canon formation (Which are the graphic novels that can gain inclusion into the mainstream canon?), and literary validation (Can graphic novels be judged with the same criteria as literary novels?). The chapter discusses the critical debates on the recognition of comics as a form of literature and the role of academia and other institutions in the making of a graphic novel canon. It studies the progressive literarification of comics and graphic novels, before focusing on the notion of the GAN, a label that refers to works picturing the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence (J. W. DeForrest), preferably with a high degree of realism. The chapter critically discusses this notion and concludes with a close reading of four graphic novels that constitute good candidates for the title of GAN: Ghost World, Fun Home, American Born Chinese, and Asterios Polyp.