If the theoretical value of a picture is still holding steady at a thousand words, then alison bechdels slim yet proustian graphic memoir, fun home, must be the most ingeniously compact, hyper. Fun home, the tony awardwinning show based on alison bechdels graphic memoir, combines textured character psychology and nuanced storytelling. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir that led alison bechdel to commercial and critical success. The role of gender and literature in alison bechdels fun. When alison came out to her parents as a lesbian, a few months later. Students read, discuss, and write about graphic novels exploring issues of power, sexuality, race, gender, class, and identity. The role of gender and literature in alison bechdels fun home.
Reminiscent of art spiegelmans maus, fun home explores the relationship. Fun home creator alison bechdel on turning a tragic childhood into. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir by alison bechdel tracing her journey from young girl to young adult as she comes to grips with her own lesbian sexuality, her father bruces most likely suicide, and his secret homosexuality or bisexuality that he kept hidden throughout his life. Graphic novel special comics and graphic novels interview. Fun home is a hard book, butfilled with love and hate and glory and discontent and tragedy and hopeits also a powerful one. Reminiscent of art spiegelmans maus, fun home explores the. The book has successfully gained critical acclaims and also some controversy.
One of the very best graphic novels ever, booklist. A family tragicomic, by alison bechdel the new york. Reminiscent of art spiegelmans maus, fun home explores the relationship between alison and her closeted father, bruce bechdel, to shed light on themes such as gender, the comingout process, and the complicated dynamics of family life. Fun home is a musical adapted by lisa kron and jeanine tesori from alison bechdels 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. Fun home study guide contains a biography of alison bechdel, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. In fact, an analysis of goodreads statistics shows increased interest in the graphic novel. Although the superhero genre dominates the graphic fiction scene, one of the earliest graphic novels, released as a picture novel, was a hardboiled type of mystery with an ordinary mortal. The creators of sparknotes fun home themes from litcharts. Its the story of her growing up, her coming of age. Alison bechdels graphic memoir fun home has received critical raves. I have been somewhat surprised at the fact that these authors have chosen to express such serious and heavy subjects through the. The graphic novel is not linear in the least, and mimics memory as it moves backwards. An analysis of fun home by alison bechdel using understanding comics by scott mccloud once again, i really really enjoyed this graphic novel. Despite these successes, some students in duke universitys incoming class refused to read fun home when it was placed on their recommended summer reading list.
Bechdel builds the narrative around the tragic event of her fathers death. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family. Fun home study guide contains a biography of alison bechdel, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary. The musical version was a finalist for a pulitzer prize in drama and won three tony awards. Bechdels memoir offers a graphic narrative of uncommon richness, depth, literary resonance and psychological complexity. Alison bechdels fun home and michel foucaults repressive hypothesis the valley of the shadow of text. This fun home weaves tragedy and comedy into a wholly.
Fun home centres on her life with her father and how they coped with their differences. Some see fun home as having been a turning point for graphic novels. Retelling traumatic experience in alison bechdels fun home. Alison bechdels fun home is one such example of a graphic novel making use of comics as a means of opening a discourse about the scars family members leave on their children and finding some form of closure through sharing these stories with. Fun home creator alison bechdel on turning a tragic childhood into a hit musical rachel cooke. Fun home is alison bechdels graphic memoir of her life growing up. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of fun home. The main characters of this sequential art, graphic novels story are. This course explores the history and development of the graphic novel, a hybrid genre that combines visual and written textual elements. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir by alison bechdel.
Putting the fun back in funeral and spicing it with tenderness, grit and regret, alison bechdels memoir fun home. On the surface, alison bechdels fun home seems simply to be a memoir of her journey towards discovering her own identity, and in the process, uncovering her fathers. A family tragicomic is a 2006 graphic memoir by the american cartoonist alison bechdel, author of the comic strip dykes to watch out for. Fun home creator alison bechdel on turning a tragic. An arthrological study of alison bechdels fun home. Duke freshmen boycott acclaimed graphic novel fun home over religious beliefs these freshmen have already flunked the bechdel test. A happy death is the title of albert camuss existential novel. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Young alison bechdel lives in pennsylvania with helen, bruce, and her little brothers christian and john. The tony awardwinning musical fun home traces the comingofage of lesbian author alison bechdel, from her youth, to her years at oberlin college, and finally to the present, where alison, now grown, is struggling to write her own graphic autobiography. A family tragicomic grabs you from the first page and never lets go. Fun home is a graphic novel written by alison bechdel, who is well known for her long running comic series, dykes to watch out for. Equal parts kunstlerroman, psychoanalytic case study, and literary criticism, alison bechdels graphic memoir, fun home. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir that led alison bechdel to. A family tragicomic, frames the development of a lesbian identity through the strategic use of visual and verbal representation of memories, interpretive acts, and the use of specific literary texts as transitional objects bookish and nostalgic, alison the narrator weaves. Fun home as the chosen summer reading material by citing that its depictions of lesbian. It has won several award and was nominated for 2007 eisner awards. Ultimately, the south carolina legislatures attack on fun home did little to dampen the popularity of the book. Essay on the experience of teaching fun home, and why.
Dublin bound i didnt understand why we couldnt just read books without forcing contorted interpretations on them. Fun home has since made the leap to the stage, first as an offbroadway musical adaptation before launching to tony awardwinning, mainstream fame. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following. The acclaimed graphic novelist on exposing her family, appearing in.
Distant and exacting, bruce bechdel was an english teacher and. Student protests alison bechdels fun home artnet news. From left, michael cerveris, judy kuhn, sydney lucas and oscar williams in fun home, a musical portrait of a girl and her father at the circle in the square theater. Duke freshmen boycott acclaimed graphic novel fun home. Fun home themes from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. Its like reading someones diary, because essentially it is someones diary, but this has to be the most painstakingly artful diary ever created. Fun home is a graphic memoir in which alison bechdel describes her childhood and early adulthood.
It chronicles the authors childhood and youth in rural pennsylvania, united states, focusing on her complex relationship with her father. There are three major reoccurring themes throughout the graphic memoir fun home by alison bechdel. The last and only other graphic novel i read is maus by art spieglemanand. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of fun home by alison bechdel. A family tragicomic is a graphic novel memoir by american. My realization at nineteen that i was a lesbian came about in a manner consistent with my bookish upbringing. It may be that the problems with the opening mythic allusion of the icarusdaedalus relationship coloured the remainder of. Burlington book festival 2006 september 15, 2006 cartoonist and author alison bechdel reads from her new, critically acclaimed graphic memoir fun home with a slide presentation as accompaniment. Fun home is what she and her brothers called the familyowned funeral home her dad ran. More specifically, fun home is the story of alisons coming of age while grappling with her lesbian gender identity and the way that identity differs from the expectations imposed on her by. The first edition of the novel was published in june 8th 2006, and was written by alison bechdel. First published in 2006, this graphic novel has received highly positive acclaim from critics. A family tragicomic is an autobiographical graphic novel by american comic writer and artist alison bechdel. Having never felt much inclination toward the graphic novel genre, i accepted a copy of fun home by alison bechdel on loan only because a coworker promised that i could finish it in one hour and forty minutesalmost precisely the amount of time it would take to travel from the office to my home in connecticut, where i had plans to spend the weekend.
Fun home while reading alison bechdels graphic novel, fun home, i found myself engaging with the text in a manner im not used to. Throughout the memoir both alison and her father struggle in the face. A family tragicomic, documents the authors discovery of her own and her fathers homosexuality. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the familyowned fun home, as alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most. Fun home summary from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. But fun home quietly succeeds in telling a story, not only through. Created for a literature in popular culture class about the graphic novel, this podcast is a visual literary criticism that analyzes the role of fiction in autobiography through a discussion of. Bruce and helen had been living in europe, but the death of. A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir by alison bechdel tracing her journey from young girl to young adult as she comes to grips. In this graphic memoir, alison bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. It focuses specifically on her parents, helen and bruce, and their role in her life. Student asks college to ban fun home and other pornographic graphic novels sarah cascone, june 17, 2015 a page from neil gaiman, the sandman, vol. First published in 2006, this graphic novel has received.
A family tragicomic is a graphic memoir that led alison bechdel. Fun home written by best selling author and american. Citing the books acceptance of lesbian identity, these students said they believe that exposing. Described by the times of london as a profound and important book fun home.
694 602 1416 638 573 357 169 1461 1155 672 673 326 475 1373 175 1205 547 628 1277 618 230 368 1106 278 1107 36 650 144 1217 1158 1463 1301 1228 664 124 378 888 52 927 1486 905 270 1263 86 1154 1034 23 1049 1376