Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Chalifant, Henry and James Prigoff. Spraycan Art. (1987). New York: Thames & Hudson. 0-500-27469-X

This non-fiction book, complete with hundreds of photographs, depicts the evolution of graffiti. Starting in New York City, the book chronicles the evolutionary roots and influences that affect the styles of cities across the States and the world. Giving brief histories about the b-bop era giving birth to illegal tagging of subways, the book discusses how some local governments have tried to harness the potential community growth that planned graffiti and murals can give. It is a split within the art community, and the artists interviewed discuss the dilemmas.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. (1997). New York: Scholastic. 0-590-37125-8.

As a novel told through poetry, this book about the Dust Bowl is a realistic but sad look at such a difficult time period of American history. The book focuses on a family, with the young daughter as the central character. Crop failures and poverty effect the family, but when the girl accidentally burns her mother and baby brother, things grow worse. Eventually, she makes her way to California and hope.

Hoch, Danny. (1998). Jails, Hospitals, & Hip-Hop and  Some People. New York: Random House. 978-0-307-78919-8.

This book is a scripted version of some of his monologues. The stories he tells deal with many societal aspects such as the prison complex, poverty, and living in an ever diverse community in New York City. Using humor, he critically pokes at some very real problems and asks questions. Never losing that humor, he plays around, acting through code-switching, often changing languages and dialects.

Osa, Nancy. (2003). Cuba 15. New York: Delacorte Press. 0-385-73021-7.

Violet, who just turned 15, is a girl growing up in the Chicago area to a Cuban-American father and a Polish-American mother. It is a story about cultural identity, that is centralized around her quintecera. In many Latin American cultures, this is a celebration of an entering into womanhood for fifteen year old girls. Through the planning and organizing of her party, Violet learns more about her Cuban heritage, an aspect that angers her father, who has tried to distance himself from the island, due to the negative associations with communism.

Persepolis

Persepolis was a fantastic book! I learned so much about so many relevant historical events. I was unfamiliar with what occurred within the Iran-Iraq War as well as the Islamic Revolution. The texts allowed me to understand, through the naïve yet knowledgeable experiences that Marjane relates in text and images. I loved how the ignorance of the happenings were realistic, and you had the comprehension of what a child would have regarding the circumstances around her.

I was able to deepen my knowledge of historical events, but was also able to see the growth occur within the tale. Marjane explores who she is and what the world around her is. She is honest, and openly shows contradictions within her own beliefs and those around her. Often, she does so by providing humor in the corresponding images.

And those images, add immensely to the story in many ways. The black and white drawings (as opposed to the colored illustrations of American Born Chinese) give the story a darker feel. As it discusses a darker topic, it is very fitting. Yet, the humor allows for the story to remain somewhat positive. Only somewhat, as the story does remain very realistic and complex. You don’t know how the story plays out (unless you read the second book, and still you don’t know what the future holds) and that can be frustrating. However, it is a great text that combines historic elements, with memoir aspirations, within a graphic novel. 

American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese was my first graphic novel that I have read. And I must say, I fully enjoyed it! I found that the affordances of the genre were awesome, as the pictures added a great deal to the plot. The themes the book explores were also quite interesting to me. The multiple plot lines that occur simultaneously in the book, while being actually a singular tale, deepen the understanding of the notion of multiple identities or rather complex identities that occur within many of us.

Although I am starting to feel that maybe taking a universalistic stance is not correct, I still prefer to add some personal relevance to everything I read and feel that is quite natural (and therefore necessary) to do so. The tale is one of teenage dilemmas. Girls, friends, and parental (cultural) embarrassment are commonplace in the lives of many. This theme allows for some empathy and relating to the main character, yet the encompassing of the Monkey King’s plot and other cultural aspects allows for an engaging exploration of where do our cultural identity, our national identity and our personal identities meet and combine.

Critically, as I mentioned before, this is a graphic novel. Its format allows for plot and narrative additions that text alone cannot relate to the reader. The images are great, vivid descriptions of what is occurring and allow for a multimodal interpretation. There was one image that plays on those conceptions of multiliteracies, as one must be able to have background knowledge to be able to interpret the last panel on page 215, as a combination of West with Christianity.

It is those types of cultural exploration that the book does so well. The story lines are multiple but merge into one, just as the many narratives we live combine into one life narrative. The form of a graphic novel gives that affordance.