Non­fic­tion

The Jew­ish Graph­ic Nov­el: Crit­i­cal Approaches

Saman­tha Baskind and Ranen Omer-Sher­man, eds.
  • Review
By – August 30, 2011
This wide-rang­ing col­lec­tion of essays will appeal to read­ers inter­est­ed in explor­ing con­cep­tu­al approach­es to Jew­ish graph­ic nov­els. Six­teen essays plus inter­views with two autho­rartists con­cen­trate on major Amer­i­can graph­ic artists like Will Eis­ner, Art Spiegel­man, and Joe Kubert, as well as French author-artist Joanne Sfar and sev­er­al Israeli graph­ic authors. Themes range from how graph­ic nov­els are being used in edu­ca­tion­al set­tings to teach such sub­jects as Holo­caust and Bible, to the ways in which Jew­ish graph­ic nov­els have uti­lized nar­ra­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties of the graph­ic nov­el to explore Jew­ish iden­ti­ty and the Jew­ish his­tor­i­cal expe­ri­ence in Amer­i­ca and Else­where. The Jew­ish Graph­ic Nov­el is evi­dence of a grow­ing body of Jew­ish graph­ic works and the pro­found dis­cus­sions they raise.
Gary Katz received an MA in Eng­lish from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka-Oma­ha. He is the library admin­is­tra­tor for the Krip­ke Jew­ish Fed­er­a­tion Library in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka, one of the largest Judaica libraries in the Unit­ed States.

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