Publication Date
Fall 9-2019
Description
Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama (2012) presents an interesting challenge to literary critics: as an object that extensively theorizes itself, it leaves little room for interpretation beyond its surface-level claims. This article reads against the grain of Are You My Mother? ’s own analysis in order to make room for readings that resist taking the text at its word. Although Are You My Mother? proclaims loyalty to the psychoanalytic theories of Donald Winnicott, Bechdel employs the metaphor of the mirror and the formal qualities of comics to complicate the reductive assertions of her avatar’s own narration. Ultimately, despite all its surface-level attachments to Winnicott’s version of mental and emotional health, Are You My Mother? ’s formal strategies end up revealing Bechdel’s deep ambivalence toward concepts like reparation, authenticity, and psychic wholeness.
Journal
differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies
Volume
30
Issue
2
First Page
72
Last Page
92
Department
English
Link to Published Version
https://read.dukeupress.edu/differences/article-abstract/30/2/72/140363/Thwarting-Repair-Gutter-Stutter-Are-You-My-Mother?redirectedFrom=fulltext
DOI
10.1215/10407391-7736049
Recommended Citation
Gregory, Chase. "Thwarting Repair: Gutter, Stutter, Are You My Mother?." (2019) : 72-92.