The irony of ‘cool club’: the place of comic book 1 1. The term ‘comic book’ here covers both comics and graphic novels; there is overlap in my use of these terms in this article. While I am aware that this might be contentious, I have taken my cue from the ethnographic subjects in the study who spoke of them collectively as belonging to the same medium and culture of reading. View all notes reading in schools

摘要

Comics and education is usually synonymous with low literacy levels, reluctant readers and a predominantly male audience. Through an ethnographic study of an extra-curricular Graphic Novel Reading Group set up in a secondary school, this paper questions such assumptions and discusses some of the complex issues around the place that comic book reading occupies amongst adolescent readers in educational institutions. It demonstrates the sophistication of their readings of comics through the value placed on form (Groensteen) but acknowledges that it is the marginal cultural position (Pustz) that comics still occupy in Britain which also constitutes much of their value for these teenage readers. The place of comic book reading in schools is thus problematized when one considers actual, as well as implied, readers.View full textDownload full textKeywordseducation, marginality, form, readers, Britain, teenageRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2011.599402