Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:43:05.935Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - American Women’s Lives in Graphic Novels

Becoming and Unbecoming Women

from Part II - Graphic Novels and the Quest for an American Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2024

By
Martha Kuhlman
Edited by
Jan Baetens ,
Hugo Frey  and
Fabrice Leroy
Jan Baetens
Affiliation:
KU Leuven, Belgium
Hugo Frey
Affiliation:
University of Chichester
Fabrice Leroy
Affiliation:
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Get access

Summary

The history of comics and graphic novels often coincides with a history of marginalization of women and misogynistic stereotypes. Conversely, this chapter examines the representation of women by women in graphic novels, with a particular focus on women’s lives. It recalls the early efforts of women cartoonists within the underground comix of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Julie Doucet, who produced different representations of femininity and sexuality than their male counterparts. It considers the contributions of seminal graphic memoirs by Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel, which blended stories of personal awakening with a political context and message, offering new templates for future works. It also highlights the recurrence of the theme of childhood trauma in autobiographical works by women authors, such as Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons (2002), as well as the depiction of unequal work, career, household, and parenting demands placed on women. Finally, it reflects on the manner in which graphic novels by women authors may portray women’s experiences such as motherhood, abortion, and menopause, and considers graphic works that expand the notion of women’s discourse beyond binary identities.

Keywords

womengenderfeminismmisogynymemoirmotherhoodPhoebe GloecknerAline Kominsky-CrumbLynda BarryAlison Bechdel
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel , pp. 272 - 290
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baetens, J., and Frey, H. (2015). The Graphic Novel: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ball, D. M. (2013). Allusive Confessions: The Literary Lives of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. In Tolmie, J., ed., Drawing from Life: Memory and Subjectivity in Art. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barounis, C. (2016). Alison Bechdel and Crip-Feminist Autobiography. Journal of Modern Literature 39(4), 139–161.Google Scholar
Barounis, C. (2018). Teaching Fun Home as a Disability Memoir. In Gardiner, J. K., ed., Approaches to Teaching Bechdel’s Fun Home. New York: Modern Language Association, pp. 151–154.Google Scholar
Barry, L. (2002). One Hundred Demons. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books.Google Scholar
Barry, L. (2020). Menopositive. In Czerwiec, MK, ed., Menopause: A Comic Treatment. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 11–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechdel, A. (2006). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Bechdel, A. (2012). Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Bechdel, A. (2021). The Secret to Superhuman Strength. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Bell, G. (2014). The Truth Is Fragmentary: Travelogues and Diaries. Minneapolis, MN: Uncivilized Books.Google Scholar
Bui, T. (2017). The Best We Could Do. New York: Abrams Books.Google Scholar
Butler, J. (2015 [1998]). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution. In Rivkin, J. and Ryan, M., eds., Literary Theory: An Anthology, 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, p. 900.Google Scholar
Cardell, Kylie. (2019). The Diary as Method and Politics in the Comics Art of Gabrielle Bell and Julie Doucet. In Oksman, T. and O’Malley, S., eds., Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place inside Yourself. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 122–141.Google Scholar
Chute, H. (2010). Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Councilor, KC. (2020). Cycles. In Czerwiec, MK, ed., Menopause: A Comic Treatment. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 74–77.Google Scholar
Czerwiec, MK, ed. (2020). Menopause: A Comic Treatment. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Doucet, J. (2010). My New York Diary. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.Google Scholar
Enszer, J. R. (2018). Reading Fun Home Historically: LGBTQ History and Print Culture. In Gardiner, J. K., ed., Approaches to Teaching Bechdel’s Fun Home. New York: Modern Language Association, pp. 46–54.Google Scholar
Falardeau, M. (2020 [2014]). A History of Women Cartoonists. Oakville: Mosaic Press.Google Scholar
Flowers, E. (2020). Hot Comb. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.Google Scholar
Freedman, A. (2018). Teaching Fun Home, Teaching Modernism. In Gardiner, J. K., ed., Approaches to Teaching Bechdel’s Fun Home. New York: Modern Language Association, pp. 66–72.Google Scholar
Galioto, E. D. (2018). Psychoanalysis in Fun Home and Are You My Mother? In Gardiner, J. K., ed., Approaches to Teaching Bechdel’s Fun Home. New York: Modern Language Association, pp. 146–149.Google Scholar
Galvan, M. (2019). From Julie Doucet to Gabrielle Bell: Feminist Genealogies of Comics Anthologies. In Oksman, T. and O’Malley, S., eds., The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place inside Yourself. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 3–22.Google Scholar
Gardiner, J. K., ed. (2018). Approaches to Teaching Bechdel’s Fun Home. New York: Modern Language Association.Google Scholar
Gardner, J. (2008). Autobiography’s Biography, 1972–2007. Biography 31(1), 1–26.Google Scholar
Gibson, M. (2020). Girls, Women, and Comics. In Hatfield, C. and Beaty, B., eds., Comics Studies: A Guidebook. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 241–252.Google Scholar
Gilbert, S., and Gubar, S. (2021). Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Gloeckner, P. (2000 [1998]). A Child’s Life and Other Stories. Berkeley, CA: Frog Books.Google Scholar
Goldstein, N. (2019 [2008]). Jackie Ormes: The First African-American Cartoonist. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Gomez, B., ed. (2016). She Changed Comics: The Untold Story of the Women Who Changed Free Expression in Comics. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics.Google Scholar
Hatfield, C. (2005). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Kirtley, S. E. (2012). Lynda Barry: Girlhood through the Looking Glass. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Kirtley, S. E. (2018). “A Word to You Feminist Women”: The Parallel Legacies of Feminism and Underground Comics. In Baetens, J., Frey, H., and Tabachnick, S., eds., The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 269–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirtley, S. E. (2021). Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Lady, E. (2017). Other Options. In Newlevant, T., Fox, O. K., and Taylor, W., eds., Comics for Choice: Illustrated Abortion Stories, History, and Politics. Cupertino, CA: Alternative Comics, pp. 153–156.Google Scholar
Mance, A. (2020). Any Day Now. In Czerwiec, MK, ed., Menopause: A Comic Treatment. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 66–73.Google Scholar
Mok, A. (2017). A Talk with Gabrielle Bell. In Oksman, T. and O’Malley, S., eds., Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place inside Yourself. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp. 225–231.Google Scholar
Mouly, F., and Spiegelman, N., eds. (2017). Resist! Brooklyn, NY: Desert Island Press.Google Scholar
Nadel, D. (2010 [2007]). What Went Wrong with the Masters Show. In Schwartz, B., ed., The Best American Comics Criticism. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, pp. 214–219.Google Scholar
Newlevant, T., Fox, O. K., and Taylor, W., eds. (2017). Comics for Choice: Illustrated Abortion Stories, History, and Politics. Cupertino, CA: Alternative Comics.Google Scholar
Oksman, T., and O’Malley, S., eds. (2019). The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place inside Yourself. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center. (2018). For Most Trump Voters, “Very Warm” Feelings for Him Endured. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Robbins, T. (1999). From Girls to Grrlz: A History of [Women’s] Comics from Teens to Zines. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.Google Scholar
Robbins, T. (2009). Wimmen’s Studies. In Kitchen, D. and Danky, J., eds., Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix. New York: Abrams Books, pp. 30–33.Google Scholar
Rosenkranz, P. (2008). Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books.Google Scholar
Satrapi, M. (2003 [2000]). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, trans. B. Ferris and M. Ripa. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Satrapi, M. (2004 [2001]). Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, trans. A Singh. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Utell, J., ed. (2020). The Comics of Alison Bechdel: From the Outside In. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Wanzo, R. (2020). The Only Thing Unamerican about Me Is the Treatment I Get: Infantile Citizenship and the Situational Grotesque. In The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging. New York: New York University Press, pp. 139–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J. (2008). Autographic Disclosures and Genealogies of Desire in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Biography, 31(1), 27–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whaley, D. E. (2015). Black Women in Sequence: Reinking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Whitlock, G. (2006). Autographics: The Seeing “I” of Comics. Modern Fiction Studies, 52(4), 965–979.Google Scholar
Whitlock, G. (2020). Autographics. In Hatfield, C. and Beaty, B., eds., Comics Studies: A Guidebook. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 227–240.Google Scholar
Williams, M. (2016). Marjane Satrapi. In Gomez, B., ed., She Changed Comics: The Untold Story of the Women Who Changed Free Expression in Comics. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, pp. 77–78.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., and Shwed, A. (2017). Jane. In Newlevant, T., Fox, O. K., and Taylor, W., eds., Comics for Choice: Illustrated Abortion Stories, History, and Politics. Cupertino, CA: Alternative Comics, pp. 41–50.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×