From Deviance to Difference A Critical Study of Alison Bechdel s Graphic Lesbian Memoirs

Abstract

This thesis explores the graphic elements in Alison Bechdel s memoirs Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama vis-à-vis her family relations and their effect on her coming out of the closet. It examines the autobiographical avatar, Alison s deviance from heteropatriarchal norms thereby revealing the inherent gender politics within the domestic sphere. The first chapter is the Introduction which precisely introduces the topic and maps the development of queer theory connecting it to the concerns of the research questions and objectives.