Alison Bechdel and the Queer Graphic Novel

Abstract

Author of the graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, artist, writer, and archivist Alison Bechdel subverts both form and content with her cartoony imageword pairings and her unique combination of humour, self-deprecation, and critical reflection. In order to understand the connection between the method of deconstruction and the style of the graphic novel, it is important to briefly summarize poststructuralism and a few of its key terms, including discourse, deconstruction, and difference. While feminist and queer deconstructionist philosophers lay bare the phallocentrism of narratives that position the hero as 'western man', graphic novels like Fun Home take this a step further in that they offer unique opportunities for seeing but also constructing and deconstructing the social, teaching the readers how fixed or stable meaning is never reached in any signifying system.