A troubled childhood in Iran. Living with a disability. Grieving
for a dead child. Over the last forty years the comic book has
become an increasingly popular way of telling personal stories of
considerable complexity and depth.
In "Autobiographical Comics: Life Writing in Pictures,"
Elisabeth El Refaie offers a long overdue assessment of the key
conventions, formal properties, and narrative patterns of this
fascinating genre. The book considers eighty-five works of North
American and European provenance, works that cover a broad range of
subject matters and employ many different artistic styles.
Drawing on concepts from several disciplinary fields--including
semiotics, literary and narrative theory, art history, and
psychology--El Refaie shows that the traditions and formal features
of comics provide new possibilities for autobiographical
storytelling. For example, the requirement to produce multiple
drawn versions of one's self necessarily involves an intense
engagement with physical aspects of identity, as well as with the
cultural models that underpin body image. The comics medium also
offers memoirists unique ways of representing their experience of
time, their memories of past events, and their hopes and dreams for
the future. Furthermore, autobiographical comics creators are able
to draw on the close association in contemporary Western culture
between seeing and believing in order to persuade readers of the
authentic nature of their stories.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!