Writing the Self, Drawing the SelfIdentity and Self-Reflexivity in Craig Thompson’s Graphic Memoir Blankets

  1. Mercedes Peñalba García
Journal:
Cultura, lenguaje y representación = Culture, language and representation: revista de estudios culturales de la Universitat Jaume I = cultural studies journal of Universitat Jaume I

ISSN: 1697-7750

Year of publication: 2015

Issue: 14

Pages: 155-180

Type: Article

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More publications in: Cultura, lenguaje y representación = Culture, language and representation: revista de estudios culturales de la Universitat Jaume I = cultural studies journal of Universitat Jaume I

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify some of the key conventions and narrative patterns that graphic memoirists may use in order to articulate their own sense of identity, and deal with issues of truth, ethics, and representation through visual and verbal combinations. Craig Thompson’s Blankets (2003) serves as a poignant example of the semiotic resources that are relevant to an analysis of the autobiographical comics genre: the inscription of subjectivity and the spatial dimension of temporality. Drawing on Charles Hatfield’s critical model (2005), this article examines the various ways graphic narratives mediate identity, enter into (and out of) autobiographical pacts, and «perform» authenticity.

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