"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka adapted by Peter Kuper

In 2013 I wrote about Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" which I had first read in the 1970s in high school and reread recently as part of a literature class.  While looking for this book online I ran across the works of Peter Kuper where he had adapted that book and "The Trial" as graphic novels.  I simply couldn't resist buying them.

A colleague at Simpson has an interest in graphic novels and comic books and so I have lent him a couple and we have talked about how to read them.  He slows his reading down, savoring the images on each page.  I have more of a layered approach, reading the story rather quickly and then immediately returning to the beginning to search through the images and study the layout.  I then put the book away and come back to it later to read it yet again.

Since 2013 I have read Kuper's "The Metamorphosis" probably 8 times.  I picked it up last night after not having looked at it since October 2014.  It was a pleasure to read it once again, relishing the sight of images that I remembered from past readings and discovering things I didn't remember from before.  As you can see from the two pages below, Kuper incorporates the text into the book in interesting ways, and I found myself having to turn the book to the left, right and upside down to read it.  I also like how he incorporates the tone of voice into the word bubbles.

In 2013, I reread Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" for a literature course on fantasy and science fiction, but when I took the Coursera MOOC on comic books and graphic novels last year I revisited this graphic novel.  I was also teaching a writing course at the time.  The course was only 1 credit, but while the students used effective grammar and style, I found they struggled to write an argument.  In 1 credit I couldn't introduce very much content, e.g., I couldn't have them read a novel to write about in addition to the work of the course already.  And so I borrowed an assignment from the instructor of the course I was taking, Dr. Wm. Kuskin of the University of Colorado-Boulder, that required us to write an argumentative essay based on one page from a comic book or graphic novel to use in the course I was teaching.

As an exercise to prepare the students of my class for the assignment I wanted to find my own pages to use and not rely on the ones Dr. Kuskin had used.  I decided on the following two pages from Kuper's work, which I printed on one 8.5x11in page.  I had them work in small groups to look for evidence (Kuskin's first rule:  circle the evidence).  Then we listed what they had found on the board.  I asked them again to work in groups to synthesize the evidence (Kuskin's second rule), and they reported back with mini-theses they could develop from the evidence.  Then as a whole, we created the outline for a three-point essay.

It was an interesting exercise for me.  There were those that got the idea of writing an argument and created interesting thesis statements from the comic book pages they were finally assigned, but others struggled to write a thesis statement of their own expecting me to be looking for the 'right' one.  I would meet with students to go over their work, and they would say something like, "It seems to me like ....", afraid to venture into territory where they were creating their own knowledge instead of just absorbing what is presented to them.  Regardless of the results for the students, I learned a lot about writing and teaching writing in the process.

So, my story of reading this graphic novel has been two years in the making, and I suspect I will reread it again many times over the years.  I have Kuper's adaptation of "The Trial" in my bookshelf waiting for me to become addicted to it as well.