Graphic novels... should they be used to supplement or to replace canonical literature. From my experience, they can greatly help at risk students understand the classic texts. Students may have trouble picturing how a scene would look or may need a visual cue to help them understand little parts of the plot that may not be as obvious in pure text form. As a general rule though, adaptations of classic texts have a tendency to leave out parts of a story. The graphic novel adaption of Portrait of Dorian Grey leaped from Dorian as an innocent youth to his corrupt adult life, skipping over his development and loss of innocents. This gives less of a portrait of Dorian Grey and more of an overview. (bad pun, I know)
Also, other novels like A Wrinkle In Time are challenging to change into a visual format. The story has a scene that takes place in a two dimensional universe and another universe that the characters cannot seem to describe in human speech. This means that both of these universes would be very challenging to draw.
How great would it be to see an attempt at A Wrinkle in Time, though? I mean, the universe cannot be translated into human speech, so it would be unique to see someone attempt to draw the universe into a visual world.
ReplyDeleteConcerning Dorian Grey, it would have to be supplemental or perhaps the teacher could teach that version, but haveclips of the original text to supplement the graphic novel and to better show that transition. Otherwise, the graphic novel is simply missing too much to make it valuable to the readers in the way that the original would have been.