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ERIC Number: EJ1231187
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1358-684X
EISSN: N/A
'Whatever Else May Be Going On:' Sharing Books in Bechdel's "Fun Home"
Miller, Michelle
Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, v26 n4 p405-414 2019
In "Fun Home," Alison Bechdel recounts a version of her family's history through moments of meaningful textual exchange. This paper takes up one such moment, when Alison's father Bruce offers his daughter a queer text, which she uses both to understand her own sexuality and to broach the the queer connection she has just learned they have. I read this exchange as a case study for considering what happens when we share our meaningful books with others. Here I map the way literary works function in this text both developmentally, following Grumet's reading of Winnicott, and erotically, following Bechdel's own narration. I read the act of sharing books as an act of love that helps build the world worth noticing, core relationships, and individual identities, reading too how literature functions as 'currency' in the difficult father-daughter relationship at hand in this graphic memoir.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A