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Falmouth Reads: Visual Literacy & the Graphic Novel

  • Hermann Room, Falmouth Public Library 300 Main Street Falmouth, MA 02540 (map)

From the Bayeux Tapestry to Maus, Hokusai to airplane safety cards, sequential visuals have long been used to entertain and inform. Unlike verbal literacy, visual literacy is not generally taught, yet an understanding of it is employed for comprehension and analysis on a daily basis. Via a brief history of comics and an overview of the rise of the graphic novel, we’ll explore the significance of visual literacy and how it features in literary culture today. If your interest in graphic novels was piqued by reading 2023’s Falmouth Reads Together title, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, this lecture will help you learn more about the medium’s history and current status. Please register.

The 2023 Falmouth Reads book, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, is named for the graphic novel that is created by one character, and much loved and carried around by another. Did reading the book get you wondering more about graphic novels, where the medium came from, and maybe even how you make one yourself?

This is one of two events with Marika. Sign up for the afternoon event for a hands on workshop!