Can Graphic Novels become Great Literature?
by Kenneth Lyen
HOW DO YOU DEFINE GREAT LITERATURE?
For me, great literature must teach me something profound about life and human relations. It challenges my beliefs and prejudices, and opens my eyes to see things from a different perspective. The story must be compelling, subtle, the characters must be three-dimensional, and it must make me think. There must be some aesthetic beauty in the writing and the description of the scenes and characters must be artistic. Finally, when I re-read the book, I want to discover even more complexities and subtleties. To me, that is what great literature is about.
The question is whether or not graphic novels can fulfil the dream of becoming great literature?
THE PULITZER PRIZE
In 1992, the graphic novel Maus by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman won the Special Award in Letters of the Pulitzer Prize. It is a series of cartoon drawings depicting the experiences of a Polish Jew surviving the Holocaust. The Jews are represented as mice, the Germans as cats, and the Poles as pigs. This anthropomorphic technique allows Spiegelman to tackle serious concepts and deliver profound messages in a compelling manner.
Maus has been translated into 30 languages, and has won many other awards.
THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
Another graphic novel, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, was nominated in 2018 for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most distinguished literary award. At the time, it was quite a surprise because the literary elite regarded the graphic novel as, how shall I put it, somewhat infra dig; and furthermore, graphic novels carried a historic baggage of sprouting from the lowly comic book.
When I was a young student, I used to smuggle a comic into the classroom, and secrete it inside a large textbook. I had to be careful because if discovered, the teacher would confiscate it. Comics, as the name implies, were frowned upon as frivolous diversions, and of no educational value. Those were the days of Superman, Batman, and the British Dennis the Menace comics.
WILL EISNER (1917-2005): A CONTRACT WITH GOD
With the publication in 1978 of “A Contract with God”, the graphic novel was officially born, and the author, Will Eisner is considered the father of this genre. "A Contract with God" is a trilogy of short stories about poor Jewish characters living in a tenement in New York City. These touching stories transformed the comic into something more serious and profound.
Following this came a flood of influential graphic novels. Sadly I have only read a small sample of them. The ones that I have read and like include the following:
ALAN MOORE (b1953): V FOR VENDETTA
Alan Moore is a British graphic novelist best known for "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta". The latter is a dystopian thriller set in the future where “a fascist government controlled Britain, opposed only by a lone anarchist dressed in a Guy Fawkes costume who turns to terrorism to topple the government.”
NEIL GAIMAN (b1960): SANDMAN SERIES
Neil Gaiman is a graphic novelist who is best known for his Sandman series. The main character is Dream who rules over the world of dreams. Sandman blends mythology with history in a horror setting.
OSAMU TEZUKA (1928-1989): ASTRO BOY
The Japanese also have a tradition of graphic novels named “manga” which means “impromptu pictures”. One of the more notable manga artist is Osamu Tezuka, who published the popular "Astro Boy" in 1952. Today Osamu is considered the Father (sometimes God) of Manga.
MARJANE SATRAPI (b1969): PERSEPOLIS
There are relatively few female graphic novelists, but the one I enjoyed is Marjane Satrapi who wrote Persepolis (2000). This is her autobiography and depicts her life in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
GENE LUEN YAN (b1973): AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
Asian graphic novelists who gained international recognition include Gene Luen Yang, a Chinese born in American, whose family is from Taiwan. His graphic novel "American Born Chinese" (2006) is a contemporary rendition of the Monkey King. In 2016, Gene was named as member of the MacArthur Fellows Program, which is popularly known as the “Genius Grant”. The grant is awarded to Americans who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction."
SONNY LIEW (b1974): THE ART OF CHARLIE CHAN HOCK CHYE
Back home in Singapore are two prominent graphic novelists. The first is Sonny Liew who studied at Cambridge University and published his graphic novel “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye” in 2015 with a grant from Singapore’s National Arts Council. According to Wikipedia, “shortly before the book's release in Singapore, the National Arts Council withdrew its grant of $8,000 for the title, citing "sensitive content" and its potential to "undermine the authority and legitimacy" of the government.” The book went on to win the Singapore Book Awards in 2016, and 3 Eisner Awards in 2017.
DAVE CHUA (b1970): GONE CASE
The other famous Singaporean graphic novelist is Dave Chua. He was born in Malaysia and came to Singapore at the age of ten. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley. His first novel, "Gone Case", won a Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996 and was published the same year. The book was converted into a graphic novel in 2010-2011, and it has been made into a 2-part television series in 2014. The story is about the life of a 12-year-old boy growing up in a Housing Development Board apartment and explores his difficult life balancing studying for exams, taking care of his younger brother, and doing household chores, while his family undergoes an upheaval. The story captures what it feels like growing up in Singapore in the 1990’s.
NICK DRNASO (b1989): SABRINA
The nomination of "Sabrina" as a contender for the Man Booker literary prize (2018) has helped catapult the graphic novel into the realm of great literature. Written by Nick Drnaso, this graphic novel is about a woman, Sabrina, who goes missing in Chicago and is subsequently found to have been murdered. However, the focus of Sabrina is not on the crime itself but rather on its emotional effects upon the people who were close to her.
COMIC BOOK vs GRAPHIC NOVEL
The general perception is that the prototype comic book is thinner than a graphic novel, rarely exceeding 30 pages. In the past, it used to be staple-bound in the form of a magazine rather than having its spine glued like a book. It tells a short story which may be serialized, so readers have to purchase subsequent issues to discover the sequel. Word and thought balloons are also a part of the sequential art found more in comics than graphic novels, but they also do appear in some graphic novels. Comics often exaggerate the characters and landscapes and have a tendency to be more absurd and farcical, and hence they are often used to parody, satirize or subvert their subject matter.
The precise definition of graphic novels is a bit more tricky. Like comics, the narrative is depicted as multiple images combined with text arranged in sequence in time and space so as to generate a story. Most graphic novels are longer than comics and are therefore regarded as long comic books. Most graphic novels are standalone single stories and are complete within its pages. The length of the graphic novel allows it to present stories that are more complex and elaborate, with greater insights and profundity, compared to the comic book.
JAPANESE MANGA
Japanese comics (manga) are usually serialized and bound in both comic book as well as graphic novel format. Because Japanese characters are written from top to bottom, and from right to left, most manga layouts follow this tradition. The drawings are usually completely black and white, with the exception of the cover art. The characters are drawn in two dimensions, and they have large eyes, large head, straight and unusually colored hair.
COMIC BOOKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS IN EDUCATION
Currently comic books and graphic novels are now recognized for their distinctive approach to storytelling and their literary importance. Indeed, they have a lot to offer to children, especially those who are struggling to read, including children who have dyslexia. They are good at wooing reluctant readers and they can inspire and motivate them to read more. Some children lose interest in reading perhaps because they were pushed into reading when they had no interest. For these children, reading loses its thrill and excitement, and it fails to foster imagination in their readers.
Quite a significant proportion of children are visual learners, and they are best suited for the comic book and graphic novel's way to become engaged in reading. Dyslexic children fall into this category, and parents have found that the use of graphic novels a good way to ignite their interest in reading.
Graphic novels have recently entered into mainstream education and has become one of the effective teaching tools of the 21st century. It is not meant to displace reading the traditional printed books that have relatively few illustrations. Reading both the regular non-pictorial novels and graphic novels are equally important and they form part of our total education.
GRAPHIC NOVELS IN MEDICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION
As a medical educator, I am very interested in the use of graphic novel format for teaching healthcare workers. From the few books that I have chanced upon, I have found them capable of delivering complex and abstract concepts in a clear concrete way, often with a sense of humor that makes them so compelling.
Singapore illustrator, animator and art educator, James Tan has written a few graphic novels, and his book "All Death Matters" is a deeply heartfelt exploration of a young doctor's encounters with the dying. The graphic novel format is especially suitable for such serious topics because it conveys the message clearly, thoughtfully, and deeply.
CAN GRAPHIC NOVELS BECOME GREAT LITERATURE?
Can graphic novels tell us something important about life, something insightful and profound? Do they touch us emotionally and makes us better persons? Can they inspire us to become more creative? Both the language and the illustrations must be beautiful, every word every picture carefully drawn. Graphic novels have to be understandable, and entice us to re-read them again and again. We must be able to strongly recommend them to our friends. They should withstand the test of time and appeal to future generations of readers.
If they can do all that, then my answer is “Yes!"
FUTURE PREDICTIONS
The first graphic novel to win a prestigious literature prize, the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, is Maus by Art Spiegelman.
There was a great brouhaha when Nick Drnaso's graphic novel Sabrina was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2018. Sadly it did not win. However, the Singapore Book Council awarded the Singapore Literature Prize to Sonny Liew for his graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye in 2016, and it then went on to win 3 Eisner Awards in 2017. Hence the way is paved for future graphic novels to win more literature prizes.
Let me stick my neck out and predict that in future, graphic novels will go on to win many more literature prizes, including (maybe) the Nobel Prize for literature.
Should writers of traditional words-only minimally-illustrated books be nervous, given that the younger generations are reading less?
Although many book publishing companies and bookshops have closed down because of declining readership of traditional books, there has been a surge in the sales of graphic novels. This genre is increasingly being used in education, and I think it is even starting to make incursions into medical education! Hence there is a glimmer of hope that by capturing new readers, the graphic novel might save the reading day. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
Written by Kenneth Lyen
9 February 2019, updated 7 April 2021
%20a.jpg)