ST201 The Anatomy Lesson and Personal Identity

Introduction

In January 1984 a British writer took over a low-selling horror comic and, in his second issue, told its readers that the premise they had accepted for thirteen years was wrong. "The Anatomy Lesson" (The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, February 1984) is the most famous single issue of the character's history, and it is famous because of an idea: that the creature had never been Alec Holland at all. Year Two begins there because everything after it depends on it.

The idea is philosophical, and this module treats it as philosophy. If a being has all of a man's memories and none of his body, is it him? John Locke asked the question in 1690 and answered with memory. Derek Parfit asked it again in 1984, the same year as Moore's issue, and answered that identity is not what matters. Between them you have the terms to say what Moore did, and to decide whether it was a discovery or a trick.

Six weeks: the ending Moore inherited, the lesson itself, the Woodrue arc and the first glimpse of the Green, the philosophy, the human witnesses, and a synthesis in which you set the definition you wrote at the end of ST105 against the one Moore forces on you.

Learning objectives

• Analyse "The Anatomy Lesson" as narrative, as page and as argument.
• Explain the change Moore made to the character's premise and trace its consequences through #22 to #27.
• Summarise Locke's and Parfit's accounts of personal identity accurately.
• Apply a philosophical account of identity to a fictional case with rigour.
• Analyse how supporting characters (Abby, Matt Cable, Woodrue) carry a story's themes.
• Write a research essay that uses philosophy as a tool rather than as decoration.

Lessons

Unit 1: Week 1: Loose ends

Moore inherits a story and ends it.

1. Loose Ends: inheriting a storyMoore's first issue clears the ground. What a writer does with someone else's plot.90 min

Unit 2: Week 2: The lesson

"The Anatomy Lesson", read whole.

1. The Anatomy LessonThe issue that changed the character, read for structure, page and idea.150 min Sample

Unit 3: Week 3: Roots

The Woodrue arc and the first sight of the Green.

1. Woodrue and the Green: #22 to #24What Woodrue does with what he learned, and the network of plant life the creature discovers.150 min

Unit 4: Week 4: What makes a person the same?

Locke and Parfit on personal identity.

1. Locke and Parfit on personal identityThe memory theory, the objections to it, and Parfit's claim that identity is not what matters.180 min

Unit 5: Week 5: The witnesses

Abby, Matt Cable and the Monkey King: #25 to #27.

1. The human witnesses: #25 to #27What the people around the creature are for, and how a horror story about children carries the theme of identity.150 min

Unit 6: Week 6: Who is Swamp Thing now?

Synthesis and the assignment.

1. Who is Swamp Thing now?Setting your ST105 definition against Moore's, with the philosophy in hand.120 min

Core texts

• Required Saga of the Swamp Thing Book 1 Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and others

  Holds #20 to #27.

  Buy
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #20: "Loose Ends" Alan Moore (writer), Dan Day (pencils)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21: "The Anatomy Lesson" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette (pencils), John Totleben (inks), Tatjana Wood (colours), John Costanza (letters)

  The primary text for Assignment 1.

  Buy
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #22: "Swamped" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #23: "Another Green World" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #24: "Roots" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #25: "The Sleep of Reason" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #26: "A Time of Running" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required The Saga of the Swamp Thing #27: "By Demons Driven!" Alan Moore (writer), Stephen Bissette and John Totleben (art)
• Required Reasons and Persons Derek Parfit

  Part Three.

  Library
• Required An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, chapter 27, "Of Identity and Diversity" John Locke

  Book II, chapter 27.

  Public domainSource requires verification

Secondary reading

• Recommended Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel Annalisa Di Liddo

  The chapter on Swamp Thing.

  Library
• Recommended Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition Matthew J. A. Green (editor)

  The chapters on Swamp Thing.

  LibraryBuy
• Recommended "The Anatomy Lesson": Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Issue #21 Sequart Organization

  For checking, not citing as authority.

  OnlineLink

Assessment

Two assessed pieces. The first is a close reading of "The Anatomy Lesson" as a whole issue: structure, page, revelation. The second is a research essay on whether the philosophy of personal identity explains what Moore did to Alec Holland, requiring at least four secondary sources.

Source requirements

Assignment 1 is primary source plus optional secondary reading. Assignment 2 is a research assignment: at least four credible secondary sources, of which at least one must be a work of philosophy (Locke or Parfit) and at least one a work of comics scholarship.