'Comics versus books: the new criticism at the 'fin de siècle'.

Analyses discourses around 19th century comics. Why were they seen as lesser literature? Who judged them? What codes and class barriers were being erected, and why such fear about their transgression? What were the imagined prohibitions that kept books and comics apart? Why, in total, were they positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum of respectability? Using new evidence in the form of selected quotes form the contemporary press, the chapter builds an argument about the first great age of comics criticism - and the first great age of prejudice against comics.