An Interview with Vuong Pham

If you're a teacher of Standard English in NSW, you might be familiar with Vuong Pham. As one of the featured poems from the anthology Contemporary Asian-Australian Poets, Pham's 'Mother' is part of a suite that can be studied as part of the Language, Identity and Culture module. I was lucky enough to get to speak to Pham and ask a few questions about his poetry, with a specific focus on 'Mother'. 

Something we often talk about in English is the idea of the 'persona'; that the voice in the poem is a construct or character that the author creates. To what extent do you think this is true for your poem 'Mother'?

Much of the experiences covered within the poem are authentic. For instance, the plucking of grey hairs, gardening as a hobby, conversations over my mother's past life, struggles in settling into a new country - they're all based on real life experiences and the special relationship I have with my mother. In saying this, I also write with an awareness of what other Vietnamese refugees experienced - offering a 'mirror' to the Vietnamese community, to acknowledge that they weren't alone in what happened. Understanding what other Vietnamese people experienced can help me write with empathy and assist in adding additional elements to my poetry. To answer the question more directly, the character in my poetry is mostly based on my authentic self, with some added elements to give voice to the Vietnamese community.

How would you describe your relationship with Vietnam?

I was born and raised in Australia. Vietnam was a once great and prosperous nation before the war. With the takeover of Communism, the spread of poverty, corruption and misinformation lead Vietnam downhill. For example, mum's childhood would include singing songs about a whole range of topics (EG. Freedom of birds, nature, love of country, compassion, etc.), though when the Communist party took over, everyone was forced to sing grim songs about a dictatorial president, Bac Ho. There was a high emphasis on valuing education in the previous democratic government. If for example there was a coffin being carried down the street, common courtesy existed amongst the community to stop and take off their hats as a sign of respect. Such values are not promoted by the Communist government because they don't care about building up the nation. In short, I see Vietnam as a nation that has been restrained - now merely an echo of a once great song.

That's quite a powerful image. Do you think that great song could ever come back?

Not under the grip of a suppressive government. I remember a newspaper story from my childhood that exemplifies that. The front cover image depicted a whistleblower on trial for speaking out against an unjust government measure - and his mouth was literally covered by the government officer to stop him speaking. This is what millions of Vietnamese have to live under, a government that purports to aim for a utopia, but the populace are in fact gagged and chained.

How would you describe your relationship with poetry?

I started getting into poetry since high school. I was hooked on poetry ever since reading the classical poetry of Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Rumi, and Basho. I've always been a quiet person, and in most social contexts I'll be the quiet one in the room. Poetry is a way for me to express myself in an evocative and eloquent manner. 

How do you feel about your poem being studied by potentially thousands of students in NSW over the last 5 years?

I was over the moon when I found out my poem was studied in the NSW schools at the start of this year. I wish I had more of an ego so that I would've found out about it earlier, by way of Googling my name sooner. But on a serious note, it is an amazing privilege to have my poetry studied as part of the NSW curriculum. The essence of the poem is about honouring my mother's sacrifices and hard work. Having the poem studied by thousands of students is good affirmation for both my mother's sacrifices and my poetry writing journey.

You've worked as a teacher. How does this inform your work as a writer?

I'd say my teaching experience plays a significant role in informing my work as a poet. I like to craft my writing in a way that is accessible to a wider audience. In particular, not making it too simplistic to the point of being ordinary, whilst not being too aloof either whereby only certain people within an English university department, for example, can decipher. As a teacher, it's in my experience to aid students at the grassroots level and then scaffold learning. Poetry in general is not a popular form of text in the wider public. I understand why because it generally requires more leg work to understand in comparison to other texts. I try and make my poetry accessible and engaging. 

Why is poetry important?

Poetry is way for writers to express the depths of their emotions, experiences and insights through a condensed and evocative medium. Through the beauty of language and its many poetic devices such as metaphor, simile, rhythm, imagery, symbolism, etc, poetry serves the purpose of expanding the imagination. It is an art form that can have rich layers of meaning. Many poets utilise poetry as a kind of healing tool - an emotional release to help writer and reader navigate the complexities of life and find consolation. Empathy can be encouraged amongst people of diverse backgrounds and cultures through poetry, which can positively influence the fabric of societal and cultural norms. Much of my writing focuses on the Vietnamese diaspora experience, so in that sense, poetry can act as a way of preserving our cultural heritage, passing down values and stories that would otherwise be lost if not documented. Poetry offers much educational value because it encourages us to think deeper, think critically and analytically. I've had an affiliation with poetry since high school, reading and admiring classical poets like Wordsworth, Basho, and Shakespeare. I was fascinated by how much depth of meaning they were able to achieve and express in their carefully crafted words. Poetry is a stellar option for people seeking the joys and literary beauty. 

Vuong Pham is available for poetry presentations and workshop bookings via his Facebook poet page or via the contact page of his website: Vuong Pham Poetry.

Oddments: Five unique texts on the current NSW HSC Prescriptions List

I've been working a bit on researching NSW's Prescribed Texts these past few years and, as we approach the current list's long journey into the night before the next round, I thought this might be a good time to look at some of the more unusual texts on the list.  I say 'unusual texts' but I should clarify that, when I say this, I'm not speaking about a text's subject matter or themes or genre as that's a little too subjective. I want to instead highlight the more textually-distinct outliers - the solitary text types and unusually-originated texts that stand out with a hard and firm point of difference. 

Go Back to Where You Came From

Oddity: The only television series option featured across Standard, Advanced, EAL/D, and Extension English.

Description: Go Back to Where You Came From is a carryover text from the previous 'Discovery' Prescriptions List. The television format presents a challenge to teachers as its runtime is essentially twice that of the average film - this can make it difficult to cover within a busy timeframe that also involves student selection of a related text and coverage of the 'Texts and Human Experiences' module. I taught this when it was part of 'Discovery' and, while I did find that students were able to easily engage with it, it felt like quite a slog to cover it properly alongside a related text and an Area of Study. This meant that I did not opt to explore the text as part of 'Texts and Human Experiences' when the opportunity later presented itself.

Contemporary Asian Australian Poets

Oddity: The only multi-poet anthology - between its presence in the Standard and EAL/D English syllabuses this selection includes works from eight different poets.

Description: Whilst the idea of covering so many different poets seems to pose a significant challenge in covering just as many differing contexts, it can actually force a synthesis of ideas as the teacher finds themselves bringing the texts together in service of the module 'Language, Identity, and Culture'. This conceptual underpinning can be a guiding light for students who might overwise struggle to unite separate poems together to support a thesis. It also helps that the poetry is accessible and provides a wide scope for students to make many different kinds of connections.

One Night the Moon

Oddity: A double oddity. One Night the Moon is the only prescribed text across Standard, Advanced, EAL/D, and Extension English that features characters breaking into song. It's also the only non-feature film (too long to be a short film, too short to be a feature film). 

Description: Rachel Perkins' collaboration with Paul Kelly is an achingly poignant depiction of the colonial violence and contradiction in Australia's past. It's also an unusual text outside of the English-teaching context because it's the only time singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has acted on screen. I haven't taught this text but I think it's relatively short length would allow for some useful drilling down into its finer aspects. 

'May the Pen Grace Your Page' by Luka Lesson, and 'Picture a Vacuum' by Kae Tempest

Oddity: Okay, so I'm cheating a little here as this is two texts, but I want to highlight these two as the only poetry performances to be found anywhere in the NSW Prescriptions List. 

Description: The inclusion of these slam poems carries an implication that they should be examined as multimodal performances rather than as written pieces. This is supported by the coding of each text as '(PP)' in the syllabus, meaning 'Performance Poetry' rather than 'Poetry'. The Craft of Writing supporting document from NESA also carries some textual information that suggests this too. This raises some uncomfortable questions about Craft of Writing - specifically the question of how students could be expected to model performance aspects of such a text when writing a piece under HSC examination conditions. 

Actually, I've been puzzled by the inclusion of poetry in Craft of Writing in general as the HSC Module C questions don't seem to allow students the option of composing poetry. But that's perhaps a discussion for another time.

Under Milk Wood

Oddity: The syllabus lists Under Milk Wood as a 'Drama' text but this is a reductive simplification. Over the years the text has been adapted for film, television, and as a stage drama, but its origins are as a radio play. The colour and shape of the text make the most sense in the audio-only format that it was written for. One suspects that the dwindling existence of radio drama led NESA to retroactively reclassify it as just 'Drama', but this does a disservice to the proud tradition of the radio play. 

Description: If you couldn't already tell from my championing of its radio play credentials, I am a big fan of this text. I first taught it because I needed it to make a pattern of study work and I wanted a text that wouldn't be too demanding in terms of having Advanced English students carve off more of their study time for reading. I taught it for these reasons and was very nervous because it is such an odd text and it's so far outside of the natural field of reference for most students in terms of the sorts of texts we usually look at it in English. Anyway, this class engaged with it as intended - by listening to the original Richard Burton-narrated radio dramatisation. We listened to it track-by-track, a few minutes per lesson, and broke the language down, enjoying Thomas's quirky turns of phrase and the games he plays with words. It ended up being one of my favourite thing to teach and quite a few students singled it out at the end of the year as their favorite of the texts we covered. 

Extension English: Elective 1 - Literary Homelands

The Literary Homelands elective asks students to explore how individuals and communities express their connections to place, ethnicity, and 'the other'. This is essentially an elective about diversity and voice, values and assumptions, and the impact of one culture on another. All the texts share this last thing in particular as a common thread - they portray worlds in which cultures overlap, intersect, and come into conflict.

There are three novels - two of which are set in India, albeit a century apart. One is written by an Indian writer, the other by a British one. The third novel is an Irish author's exploration of the Irish migrant experience in 1950s America.

The poetry option represents a Singapore-born Chinese-Australian's perspective on migration and cultural identity, and the drama option is an Australian-written exploration of the clash between European and Aboriginal worlds in the early 1800s.

The final text is a feminist one; a British film about London's Bangladeshi community.

Prose Fiction Options

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

What is it: Meet Balram Halwai, an impoverished Hindu who watches his father die unattended in hospital and thereafter vows to transcend the shackles of his caste. In his ambition to achieve financial security and independence, Balram becomes a driver for a wealthy Bangalore family engaged in dodgy political dealings in Delhi. His story, relayed in epistolary form to the Chinese Premier, charts his rise from extreme poverty to powerful business mogul. 

Scope for Study: In Balram, the author Aravind Adiga has created a complex and authentic voice that is representative of a class of Indian people often stereotyped or rendered voiceless. What's perhaps most engaging about Balram's narrative is that he is neither portrayed as a victim of circumstances or villified for his extreme actions throughout the novel. The line between satire and cultural expose become somewhat blurred as Balram's highly engaging second-person narration veers from the sharply comic to the brutally sobering and then back again. Students will be able to examine the significance of narrative voice, authorial intent, and literary value (The White Tiger won the prestigious Booker prize just a few years ago).

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found on The White Tiger in the annotations for the 2015-2020 syllabus, when the text was connected to the Extension 1 Elective: Navigating the Global. Most of these annotations focus on the novel's exploration of globalisation which, if you squint enough, can be co-opted to assist with reading the text in connection to the Literary Homelands elective (in that both electives allow for the examination of Adiga's depiction of India as a country shifting under a wide range of social and cultural pressures). The annotations also highlight Balram's role as an anti-heroic narrator.

Verdict: I think this would be a fantastic text to introduce to students. Adiga's novel is both very funny and quite confronting so there will be little chance for students to become bored, and the way the novel is constructed will also provide plenty of scope for lively discussion. In particular, there's a lot of mileage in examining the author's role in shaping his narrative as a complex but recognisable representation of a nation, a depiction that's familiar enough to the average student without losing a sophisticated depth of complexity that justifies the novel's critical acclaim. 

A Passage to India by EM Forster

What is it: Written and set in 1920s British India, Forster's novel concerns the tensions and misunderstandings that arise from the relationship between the British colonialists and their Indian subjects. Much of this is relayed through the friendship of Aziz, a young Muslim doctor, and Fielding, an independently-minded British headmaster - a relationship that is tumultuously tested when Aziz is falsely accused of sexual assault by a visiting Englishwoman who wants to see the 'real' India. 

Scope for Study: Forster's text remains highly relevant (despite its age) due to the complex commentary it offers on colonialism, imperialism, racial differences, and gender. At the time of its release it was considered inappropriate by Western audiences as it challenged and critiqued the concept of British superiority and flew in the face of contemporary Western views on Indian identity. From a 21st century standpoint, the text can be deconstructed from the opposite standpoint as ultimately reflective of Forster's inherent racism and other attitudes that have long since changed - something that students should have no difficulty picking up on.

NESA Annotations: Notes are provided in the new 2019-2023 Annotations, with emphasis placed on the novel's literary value as a key text written by a Nobel Prize-winning author. Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning include analysing the myriad forms that conflict takes within the text, looking at the way the author represents perspectives of different characters seeking a greater understanding of Indian society and culture, and examining the narrative's tripartite structure.

Verdict: If you count Bangladesh as a part of India (and it was at the time of A Passage to India's writing) then there are three texts in this Elective that focus on this multi-religious, multi-cultural country. I don't think I would teach all three of them but I think you'd have to be working very hard to avoid them altogether if you were doing this elective. A Passage to India is probably the most divisive and deconstructable of the three texts if you were choosing to utilise just one Indocentric work. Forster's novel challenged me at several points due to the backwards attitudes of its era, however, it also remains highly pertinent in that it offers a outlying critique of its time that was entirely apart from the common attitude of the 1920s British readership.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

What is it: Eilis is a young woman living in sleepy 1950s Ireland who finds herself presented with an opportunity to relocate to New York. Using her connection to a Catholic priest, Eilis moves into a boarding house filled with other Irish girls, gets a job in a department store, and goes to night school to become an accountant. She begins a cautious relationship with a young Italian-American man, however, when tragedy strikes back home in the village of Enniscorthy, Eilis is confronted with a difficult and life-changing decision.

Scope for Study: Brookyln's placement as part of the Literary Homelands elective makes a lot of sense as it provides students with ample scope for examining the notion of a cultural and physical homeland and the effect this can have on a person's sense of loyalty and growth. Eilis is a strange character in that she manages to come across as paradoxical in that she is both strong-willed and unassuming, and students can examine this as a symbolic representation of the way an increasingly divided cultural identity can manifest itself. The dichotomy between 1950s America and Ireland also provides scope for examining the increasing complexity of the modern world; with Brooklyn's social modernity acting as a counterpoint for the cultural decline of the 'village' represented by the rural landscape of Enniscorthy and the backwards attitudes therein.

NESA Annotations: Brooklyn was introduced in 2015 as an Advanced English novel for the now defunct Module C Elective 'Representing People and Landscapes'. As such, notes on Toibin's text can be found in the 2015-2020 Annotations, and concern themselves with the Advanced module rather than the new Extension Elective. That said, there are some useful pointers on the differences between Enniscorthy and Brooklyn, and what Toibin's authorial choices for his character might represent in relation to the novel's themes.

Verdict: Brooklyn is one of a couple of 'new' texts from the 2015 text prescriptions that have been shifted from Advanced into Extension (another that comes to mind is Melissa Harrison's Clay), which may leave a few English faculties across NSW expressing frustration after recently purchasing large class sets. That aside, Brooklyn seems a much better fit with the Extension Elective in comparison to the previous Advanced one. I would be careful about selecting this text; the themes and characters are the sort that would traditionally appeal to a middle-aged literature-conscious crowd, and some teenagers (yes, even the ones who choose Extension) may be significantly alienated and resistant to Brooklyn as a matter of taste.

Poetry Options

Burning Rice by Eileen Chong

• Burning Rice
• Mid-autumn Mooncakes
• My Hakka Grandmother
• Shophouse, Victoria Street
• Chinese Ginseng
• Winter Meeting
• Singapore

What is it: Eileen Chong is a Singapore-born Australian poet who has attracted a diverse array of accolades for her work. The selected poetry from the volume Burning Rice focuses on Chong's migrant and cultural background, straddling her Chinese ancestry and Singaporean upbringing with particular attention paid to the importance of food as a ritualised expression of identity.

Scope for Study: The seven poems selected here offer portraits of captured moments fraught with the emotional charge associated with memory and self-awareness. Chong's use of structure is fluid and free-form, allowing for word placement to slip into unexpected places via the joys of enjambment and split clauses, thus providing scope for students to examine the effect of representing moments in this stylised fashion. In relation to the elective, Chong's hyphenated identity (China / Singapore / Australia) allows for a relatively straightforward examination of the rubric provided in the syllabus. 

NESA Annotations: Featured in the newest annotations, NESA's advice on the selected suite of poetry highlight "the poet's exploration of the tensions of the diaspora" - calling to mind years past when a lot of NSW English teachers taught Peter Skrzynecki's Immigrant Chronicle as part of the 'Belonging' Area of Study. Attention is paid to the poet's use of narrative, imagery, and intertextuality to explore the impact of the past on the shaping of the present.

Verdict: I really love Burning Rice, and not just the poetry selected for the elective. My three favourite pieces from the volume are Chinese Ginseng, Bathhouse Ritual, and Mid-autumn Mooncakes - two of which are featured in the prescribed suite. It's worth noting that this text doesn't just focus on cultural heritage; it's a lot deeper in that it also deals with very personal issues such as infertility and family relationships. A lot could be done with this text in the Extension classroom.

Drama Options

The Secret River by Andrew Bovell

What is it: William and Sal Thornhill are pardoned convicts who, upon hearing that anyone can claim land for themselves by the Hawkesbury River, decide to head into the un-colonised bushland west of Sydney. William finds a few fellow settlers along the river, all battling hardship to make a new life for themselves, but doesn't bargain on the fact that the area is already inhabited by the Dharug people, whose close connection with the land challenges William's concept of what constitutes ownership and civilisation. 

Scope for Study: The foreword before the play goes into Bovell's process of adapting Kate Grenville's iconic novel into play-form and therefore provides great scope for discussing the necessities and strictures associated with crafting a story bound by the dramatic conventions of the stage. Students will also be able to draw connections between the text's content and their own personal context as Australian citizens, perhaps in relation to family histories with a basis for contrast and comparison. Bovell's extensive use of indigenous language is also a unique gift for teachers and students to explore within the totality of prescriptions available across all the English syllabuses.

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found in the 2019-23 Annotations. These outline the clash between European settlers and the Dharug people as representations of conflicting worldviews. Mention is also made of the Thornhill family as a symbol of the fledgling Australian identity, the author's use of parallels to demonstrate ideological similarity and difference between the two races, and the significance of this dramatic adaptation of a novel in that it gives the Dharug characters more defined identities and voices.

Verdict: It's worth carefully reading all the text that preludes the main bulk of the play in The Secret River as it describes Bovell's writing process as a partially collaborative one. His use of the Dharug language is probably one of the most engaging aspects of the text and reflects the input of Dharug performers, making this play at least partially representative of an Indigenous perspective (and in a way that Grenville's novel is not). I really like Grenville's novel and I can understand completely why she would not include the first person perspective of the Aboriginal characters, however, Bovell's pared-down version of the narrative is highly evocative of a lost era and I think there's a lot to be gained through its bi-cultural examination of interracial conflict on Australia's 19th century frontier.

Film Options

Brick Lane, directed by Sarah Gavron

What is it: Set in East London's Bangladeshi migrant community of the same name, Brick Lane tells the story of Nazneen, who leaves behind her home in the rural heart of the sub-continent to raise a family in England with her husband, Chanu. Their marriage is an arranged one and therefore not particularly loving, and Nazneen's isolated life and the increasing racial tension following the 9/11 attacks sees her begin to explore her individuality with a much younger Muslim man.

Scope for Study: In a reversal of A Passage to India, Gavron's film shows the West through an Eastern lens, and can be examined quite easily with multiple readings - a gender-based reading could examine Nazneen's sexual awakening and burgeoning independence as a reflection of the Western values that her daughters have adopted, and a historical reading could examine the significance of using the 9/11 attacks as a backdrop for a story about assimilation and integration. Gavron's direction is also of note in that she represents a female viewpoint in a profession (film directing) where women are few and far between.

NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2019-2023 Annotations document, where particular attention is paid to the film's context as an exploration of challenges faced by Muslims in the post-9/11 world. Note is also made of the concept of 'home' in relation to the migrant experience, and the director's use of visual metaphor and flashback to portray complex cultural perspectives and the impact of the past/memory on the present.

Verdict: A moving and beautifully-shot film, Brick Lane manages to tell a relatively straight-forward story about cultural dislocation without sacrificing the complexity that comes with living in the interstitial places afforded by close-knit migrant groups such as the Bangladeshi-British community based in East London. Pairing this film with a study of A Passage to India would be a valuable use of the elective in that both texts deal with Indian culture from near-antithetical standpoints. Brick Lane also contains a powerful and heartbreaking portrayal of the impact that 9/11 had on long-integrated Muslim communities in Western countries such as the UK, which links to the unassessable 'values' part of the syllabus in that it allows for exploration and expression of varied dimensions of the human experience.

Twenty Great Graphic Novels: Literacy, Multimodal Narratives, and Celebrating Free Comic Book Day

A two page spread from Dark Rain by Mat Johnson

Happy Free Comic Book Day! The first Saturday in May has been the international day for free comic consumption since 2002, making this the 16th such yearly event. In an era of increased concerns over literacy, and the ongoing proliferation of information consumption solely through digital means (IE. The Internet), the humble comic book stands tall as the perfect gateway to reading for reluctant readers. The unique combination of visual and written storytelling in comics creates its own set of narrative conventions that force the responder to engage with several significant aspects of literacy, such as:

• Increasing vocabulary
• Recognising generic conventions (thus allowing the reader to build internal taxonomies of understanding that allow for different kinds of texts to be intellectually categorised according to style, taste, modes, etc.)
• Reading pathways (comics are great for this as they often challenge the reader to engage with different graphic representations that encourage a whole page understanding of the direction the narrative is physically flowing in)
• Multimodal understanding (where the pictures or the text are not able to be understood on their own, in a vacuum, but must instead be brought together for the reader to gleam the full meaning).

In a more holistic sense, comics are said to act as a bridging point between picture books and longer forms of text as far as struggling readers are concerned. The combination of dynamic visual storytelling and easily digested portions of writing allow those with reading difficulties to improve their ability to decode text. Blending the visual and written to negotiate a combined meaning allows the reader to pick up on literacy cues, grammar conventions, narrative structure, and many other aspects of reading that will set them up for increased literacy later in life.

But anyway, putting all this educational medicine aside, there are a lot of comics out there (particularly graphic novels - the longer, self-contained version of the genre) that happen to tell amazing stories in a way that can't be matched in other mediums of communication. Here are 20 great examples of graphic novels for anyone looking to dip a toe in the water (please note that not all would be suitable for teaching - read them first to check):

1. The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins

Absurdist with shades of The Truman Show, Pleasantville, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs; Collins' debut uses a high concept (a man in an island community whose beard refuses to stop growing) and spins it way out of control to explore concepts of individuality, conformity, authority, and expression of self. 

If you did want to teach this text with a class, it would be interesting to get students to look at the function of panel design in exploring the text's ideas. For example, the long and vertical right hand panel depicts the beard spilling onto the floor as if from offscreen. What is Collins trying to say here?

                                                                                                                                      

2. Blankets by Craig Thompson

Thompson's memoir is heartbreaking and heartfelt, exploring his first experience of love whilst juxtaposing this relationship with a troubled and impoverished upbringing. I challenge you to read this and not shed a tear!

Thompson is a master of the close-up, mise-en-scene, and selection of detail.

                                                                                                                                     

3. Dark Rain by Mat Johnson

Full of action and relating to a real life tragedy (the wake of Hurricane Katrina's visit upon New Orleans), Dark Rain would be perfect reading for those wanting to engage reluctant teenage boys with a text that deals with relevant political issues. Relatively short, fast-paced, and featuring vivid characters straight out of an action-thriller film.

                                                                                                                                      

4. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Luen Yang uses three thematically-interrelated stories in three very different genres (coming of age memoir, Chinese folk tale, and politically-incorrect sitcom) to explore notions of race and identity. This one has potential for English teachers to use as a text that explores the Asian perspective.

                                                                                                                                     

5. Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs

Weird, haunting, funny, and gothic. Whilst Jacobs has a background as an animator on Adventure Time, this one probably isn't suitable for class study. Still worth checking out though!

The mundane and the fantastical intertwine in Jacobs' ecological fairytale.

                                                                                                                                     

6. Watchmen by Alan Moore

When most people think of comics they probably think of superheroes. The majority of this list hopefully showcases some of the other genres explored by graphic novels, however, if there's one comic title that uses superheroes to move well beyond the stereotypical in a way that outflanks its peers then Watchmen would be that title. Alan Moore distinguished himself in the 1980s with various stories that pushed the superhero paradigm to its absolute limits (V For Vendetta, Swamp Thing, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), but it's Watchmen that perhaps remains unsurpassed in its exploration of how these sorts of characters might have interacted with a real world context - in this case, the Reagan-era Cold War context.

Pictured here is Walter Kovacs, whose alter-ego Rorschach represents right wing ideology driven to the most extreme point of moral absolutism. In traditional comics, Rorschach would be a heroic avenger figure, in Watchmen he is both disturbed and disturbing.

                                                                                                                                      

7. Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

Lovingly crafted by Brazilian identical twins Fabio and Gabriel, Daytripper explores the entirety of a life in non-linear vignettes. There would be few readers who aren't impressed by the use here of the episodic narrative to build a succession of twists and details worthy of any example of great art, no matter the format.

                                                                                                                                      

8. Maus by Art Spiegelman

Maus is probably the most famous non-superhero comic ever written. Spiegelman uses narrative and metanarrative to explore his father's experiences as a European Jew during the Holocaust, beautifully capturing an authentic voice and managing quite an achievement in depicting an event that often defies our understanding.

The horror and intensity of the Holocaust is conveyed in Maus primarily through the use of light, shade, metanarrative, and zoomorphism.

                                                                                                                                     

9. Y The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

The first title listed here to not be a stand-alone graphic novel, this series takes place across ten volumes and charts the journey of Yorick (reference intentional) as he negotiates his way through the landscape of a post-apocalyptic world where every other man has been killed by a mysterious plague. Brian K. Vaughan manages to take a tired, familiar, and somewhat hokey science fiction trope (a female-led society) and turn it into a genuinely thought-provoking discussion of gender and patriarchy.

One of many fascinating ideas that arise in a world suddenly devoid of men is the question of who would become President of the United States of America. In Y The Last Man, the highest ranking surviving politician is the (Democrat) Secretary of Agriculture - a fact that demonstrates the lack of men in the U.S. Cabinet at the time of the comic's publication. In blackly-humourous contrast, the appalling and complete lack of female politicians in the Republican Party leads to an insurgence led by the wives of the now-dead Republican politicians!

                                                                                                                                     

10. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Bechdel is probably most famous for devising the 'Bechdel test', a way of assessing the inherent sexism of fictional texts by counting the number of speaking female characters who don't reflect on their romantic statuses during the course of said texts. It's worth noting here that Bechdel is an accomplished writer in her own right, and her memoir Fun Home (whilst inappropriate for the classroom) is expertly constructed and devastating in its bittersweet remembrance of a complicated father. If the graphic novel memoir is a genre on its own standing (and it is) then Bechdel's Fun Home would undoubtedly be one of its key examples.

Bechdel's intelligence shines through in her articulate use of intertextuality to add depth to the family dynamics that shaped her upbringing.

                                                                                                                                     

11. Virgil by Steve Orlando and J. D. Faith

Alas, another graphic novel not suitable for minors, Virgil is a violent portmanteau of queer theory and '70s exploitation films. The resulting one-shot Jamaican revenge opus has been christened 'queersploitation' by its authors, leading readers down a lurid path of pink and green as the eponymous gay cop battles Caribbean corruption and homophobia in his quest to save his boyfriend.

One of the few panels in Virgil that doesn't confront its reader with an unnatural palette of clashing colours or the intense discrimination that propels the action.

                                                                                                                                     

12. Building Stories by Chris Ware

Chris Ware spent years working on this ambitious project; a multi-layered narrative that comes in a box rather than a bound booklet. In a somewhat metafictional move to extend its commentary on the digitally-driven dehumanisation of our society, Building Stories defies attempts to consume the comic via a PDF scan or even just by sitting and reading it on a lounge. This non-linear and flexible narrative comes via a collection of booklets, posters, broadsheets, and pull-outs; and with instructions that each part should be read in a specific part of the house. In the hands of a lesser writer this would seem gimmicky, however Ware's depiction of suburban life and lifestyle is so simultaneously epic and small that it feels fitting that it should be experienced in a wholly unique way.

Even these images don't do it justice. Building Stories is the Sistine Chapel of the comic book medium.

                                                                                                                                      

13. DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli

This 12 volume series does for comics as The Wire did for television. Wood's vision of a new American civil war is partially inspired by the volatile post-9/11 political landscape of the U.S.A., and centres on Manhattan; a 'demilitarised zone' between the government-run United States of America and the grass roots militia movement that dubs itself the Free States of America. Wood focuses his story on Matty, an journalism intern who finds himself suddenly stranded at ground zero as the only correspondent reporting from the DMZ. The result is a sharply cynical portrait of a potential future to come.

Amongst the themes explored by DMZ are freedom of speech, integrity, corruption, surveillance, terrorism, political appearances, and the inherent difficulties in maintaining neutrality.

                                                                                                                                     

14. Little White Duck by Na Liu and Andre Vera Martinez

Like American Born Chinese, the Chinese memoir Little White Duck is another great text for teachers looking to explore the Asian perspective in the English classroom. Na Liu's remembrances of Cultural Revolution China are beautifully rendered by evocatively emotive and attractive artwork. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of growing up under the reign of cultural 'grandpa' Mao Zedong, with Na Liu managing to depict historical detail whilst remaining focused on her own very personal stories, thus grounding a difficult period of history in a real context that should make this tale of Mao's China very accessible for all readers.

This panel is especially representative of the looming presence of Chairman Mao in the background of Liu's autobiographical graphic novel.

                                                                                                                                     

15. Aama by Frederik Peeters and Edward Gauvin

Peeters is a surrealist master of the graphic novel and his four-volume epic Aama is a great example of the delightful 'otherness' that permeates European science fiction. Aama combines two familiar science fiction settings (Earth's distant future, and an alien world undergoing rapid and violent change) with the trope of technology run amok, and leaves the reader bewildered by an arresting and dazzling display of visual inventiveness.

Verloc Nim, the protagonist of Aama, is bereft of both wit and physical prowess. His only true weapons are his cynicism and refusal to conform - which make him somewhat vulnerable in situations such as the one depicted above.

                                                                                                                                      

16. The Divine by Boaz Lavie, Tomer Hanuka, and Asuf Hanuka

Similar to Black Rain, which I mentioned earlier in this post, The Divine uses filmic narrative conventions to portray a fast-moving story that explores serious subject matter. Set in a fictional South-East Asian country left broken by its colonialist past, The Divine combines Asian folklore with commentary on Western exploitation of the developing world. Content warning: quite violent!

The Divine explores the contradictory dichotomy in the Western world purporting to provide aid to undeveloped countries whilst simultaneously exploiting them.

                                                                                                                                     

17. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

In This One Summer the Tamaki cousins have created a wonderfully subtle and moving story of growing up, adolescent angst, and all the things that colour a beach-side family summer holiday. Even though this story focuses on Rose and her family, my favourite character would have to be Windy - Rose's awkward and freewheeling 'tomboy' best friend, who is undoubtedly gay and wrestling with her own coming-of-age alongside Rose's more immediate emergence into teenage-hood. This One Summer is naturalistic in its use of the graphic novel format, with panels that sequentially build on one another in a fairly straight-forward fashion, thus allowing the characters and their experiences to take centre-stage. 

The nostalgia of the 'tween' years is lovingly portrayed through tiny details.

                                                                                                                                     

18. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Second only to Maus, Satrapi's personal account of Iran's Islamic Revolution offers a unique window into experiences that are at once identifiable but also wholly alien to the majority of Western audiences. The simplistic and cartoonish illustrations lull one into a sense of familiarity that allows Satrapi to treat the reader as a confidante, telling a culturally complex story anchored in compassion and loss.

                                                                                                                                      

19. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann, Kerascoet, and Helge Dascher

What Beautiful Darkness lacks in narrative depth it more than makes up in tone, combining the gothic and the cute to create a fairytale that becomes increasingly creepy as it unfolds before the reader. I felt kind of blindsided and gobsmacked by the end.

The premise concerns a collection of strange little creatures that emerge from the body of a dead girl to explore the world around them.

                                                                                                                                     

20. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, and Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

I've included these two together because, unlike everything else mentioned in this list, these two series are unfinished and still in the process of being published. Saga is currently in its 7th volume, whilst Southern Bastards will see a 4th volume later this year. Neither of these last two examples will be suitable for classroom use but they're worth checking out just to demonstrate the way that the Image comics brand is exploring a wide scope of genres with various quality titles.

A meeting of lovers in Saga, demonstrating Brian K. Vaughan's eye for darkly witty juxtaposition of imagery and ideas.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples have collaborated on Saga to create one of the breakout comic hits of recent years. The concept focuses on the daughter of two star-crossed lovers from opposing sides in an intergalactic war, and it moves out from there to encompass a range of memorable characters, themes and subplots: bounty hunters, talking seal pups, romance novelists, TV soaps, drug addiction, pacifism, and a royal family of robots with TV sets for heads. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but it's also very entertaining and you'll no doubt fall in love with the many visually inventive aspects of Staples' character designs.

Euless Boss: One mean sonuvabitch!

Southern Bastards, on the other hand, couldn't be more different - telling a small-town tale of deception and greed where the local football coach, Euless Boss, rules over his corner of the Alabama backwoods with violent and unquestionable power. With only three volumes to its name thus far, it's perhaps too early to talk extensively about themes or where its heading, but nonetheless it stands tall as a great example of the 'rural noir' subgenre and the effectiveness of the comic book format in telling richly layered stories such as this in a memorable and idiosyncratic fashion.