124260 KO Critical Media Analysis (2024W)

In this course, we will take a close look at the mechanisms and possibilities of two so-called ‘new media’: comics and (video/pen & paper) games. Although all of these industries are established powerhouses by now, they are often still fighting for their place in academia as appropriate research subjects. The study of myth, in contrast, has a long (and often controversial) history. By analysing retellings of Greek myths in comics and games, we will therefore combine the old and the new and find out how they influence each other: What do the affordances of a specific medium do with these kinds of stories? How does mythic storytelling shape our ideas of what these media can (and should) do?
We will look at a variety of comics and games: analogue and digital, highly stylized and simplistic, action and drama. We will analyse the creators’ adaptation choices according to Linda Hutcheon’s approach: how and to what effect do these ‘texts’ (in the broader sense of the term) rewrite their chosen myths? Since games are interactive by design and the empty space of a comic’s gutter has to be filled by us as well, we will also analyse our own narrative choices: how and to what effect does the player/reader’s agency work in these texts? And how do both questions relate back to the malleability of (Greek) myths?

Close readings of the primary texts will be supplemented by secondary literature on (Greek) myth and the discussed media. Students will use a variety of analytical methods and theoretical approaches, and will gain basic theoretical tools for the critical analysis and interpretation of comics and games.

By the end of the course, students will be able to …
… recognize and analyse media-specific mechanisms.
… reflect creatively on their own role as co-creator within the given media.
… contribute to the discourses surrounding myth and its relevance today.
... write shorter analytical and reflective texts according to the rules of literary and cultural studies.