Performativity in comics: representations of gender and sexuality in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home
Date
2011
Authors
Vincent, Aimee E., author
Langstraat, Lisa, advisor
Reid, Louann, committee member
Dickinson, Greg, committee member
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Abstract
This thesis examines the role of comics in rhetoric and composition studies. By examining Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, this thesis shows that comics employ specific forms of visual-verbal rhetoric that can be useful to developing visual-verbal literacies in rhetoric and composition instruction. This thesis also suggests that gender and sexuality are underexplored areas in comics studies and examines representations of gender and sexuality through three main lenses: Foucauldian feminism through theorists such as Sandra Bartky, performativity through Judith Butler's framework, and queer theory through theorists such as Ann Cvetkovich. In the conclusion, this thesis proposes that one use for comics, specifically Fun Home, in rhetoric and composition classrooms is as a way to introduce queer theory and queer pedagogy into a first-year composition class.
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Subject
gender studies
comics studies
pedagogy
queer studies
rhetoric and composition
writing