Toward a Shared Vocabulary for Visual Analysis: An Analytic Toolkit for Deconstructing the Visual Design of Graphic Novels

Literacy educators might advocate using graphic novels to develop students’ visual literacy skills, but teachers who lack a vocabulary for engaging in close analysis of visual texts may be reluctant to teach them. Recognizing this, teacher educators should equip preservice teachers with a vocabulary for analyzing visual texts.This article foregrounds three analytic concepts preservice teachers can use to examine the role issues of design play in eliciting their response to images—specifically, those in graphic novels. To demonstrate how the concepts function, the author applies them to his own reading of panels excerpted from a critically acclaimed graphic novel for adolescents.