A discussion of Henry Jenkins' recent book, Comics and Stuff (New York University Press, 2020). The author will be joined in conversation by Hillary Chute (Northeastern University) and Daniel Miller (University College London), moderated by Tara McPherson (USC).

Registration before the event is required. REGISTER

About the Book:
Comics and Stuff consider how comics display our everyday stuff—junk drawers, bookshelves, attics—as a way into understanding how we represent ourselves now.  For most of their history, comics were widely understood as disposable—you read them and discarded them, and the pulp paper they were printed on decomposed over time. Today, comic books have been rebranded as graphic novels—clothbound high-gloss volumes that can be purchased in bookstores, checked out of libraries, and displayed proudly on bookshelves. They are reviewed by serious critics and studied in university classrooms. A medium once considered trash has been transformed into a respectable, if not elite, genre. Comics and Stuff moves through anthropology, material culture, literary criticism, and art history to resituate comics in the cultural landscape. Through over one hundred full-color illustrations, using close readings of contemporary graphic novels, Jenkins explores how comics depict stuff and exposes the central role that stuff plays in how we curate our identities, sustain memory, and make meaning. 

About the Author:
Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California.The author or editor of 20 books on media and popular culture, Henry Jenkins has spent his career exploring the intersections between participatory culture, participatory learning and participatory politics. 

This workshop is part of the Levan Institute for the Humanities' “Book Chats” series, a monthly conversation about new books published by USC scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. To see more events in this series, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/levan-institute/new-books/