Intertextuality in Fun Home – ELP Post

Homework

1. To consolidate your understanding of intertextuality, write an ELP post based on steps 3 and 4 of this slide (3-4 paragraphs – about 10 mins thinking/reading, 10-15 mins writing)

2. Spend 5 mins thinking about a global issue that your supplementary graphic novel and Fun Home have in common. Maybe  begin to identify moments in each text that would allow you to best explore how each author treats the issue.

1. what is suggested about the role of literature and fiction in her representation of her own reality? and about her self-conscious treatment of the intertextual references?

Some ideas…

In Bechdel’s representation of her own reality, we see her heavily referencing both literary and non-literary works. By doing this, she is expressing herself with the words already created by other writers. What is interesting is how she is self-aware and even explicitly acknowledges the abundance of her allusions and “literary comparisons”. This may be the product of her distrust or dislike of her own words — as we see during her OCD/diary phase when she was “obsessed with making sure [her] diary bore no false witness” — causing her to draw on other famous works that are already appreciated by the public. This reinforces to the audience that what she shows about her family members that are brought out in novels and plays like The Importance of Being Earnest are only representative of a fraction of the reality — the connections she has made: “If my father was a Fitzgerald character, my mother stepped right out of Henry James…” p66. Perhaps this takes away the pressure of telling her story down to the ‘finest’ degree of accuracy (as we know, Bechdel is very detailed both in her writing and images) because this way she is able to make use of a character likely with a rich background/story to provoke the reader to make further connections on our own and leave room for interpretation (the point of literature, a form of art, is it not? Again, provokes the question of who ‘owns’ the story once it’s ‘out there’: the writer or reader?). By using references, she is able to “fall back on” the fact that she is employing existing works into her own story. Perhaps her allusions are merely the attitude we see when she is writing her diary (for example, always adding “I think”) being translated into a different form. And as Diana said: “none of the references come to a definite statement, it’s always a ‘maybe’ or a ‘what if’ ”. Bechdel is showing us the connections she has found between her life and the literature she reads and enjoys — a big part of her life, the bridge holding together her relationship with her father — so it makes sense she will see her world through this lens. It also makes sense because humans are always inclined to make connections, it just so happens that the knowledge she draws on, is her knowledge of literature.

deepening, expanding, nuancing my thinking…

In all of these cases, fiction does not, and can not, change reality—and one can argue that Bruce’s tragedy is that he believes it can.

• This was just an “Aha!” statement for me as the article outlined its resemblance to the tragedy in The Great Gatsby. I think the article’s summary of how fiction/literature serves a different purpose for Alison, her father, and her mother was quite interesting. All of them were tied together by the key ideas of lies, deception, truth, reality, evading reality and truth, presentation…As a reader I feel sympathetic/pitiful towards the depicted dysfunctional qualities of their family caused by so many greater topics (necessity to conform to gender/familial/etc. roles, fear of and consequences of being different!) that actually run through/affect ALL the members of the family (the ‘coincidences’…helped create this effect). By using both literary and non-literary works, Bechdel creates a spider web that weaves authors and stories from different times, who may be giving different messages overall, but the aspects of the stories she has chosen to highlight in her novel are used to reinforce her own message.

Understanding her life in its comparison to fiction gives Alison a way not to come to definitive answers, but to frame questions and understand the possibilities of reality.

• this ties back to the thinking of “what if” and “maybe” that we can sometimes notice in the tone of Bechdel’s narration. Often she poses her own questions, which also highlight her self-awareness. And because of that, as the reader we have to consider to what extent is what she presents her trying to form an understanding OR just provoking the reader to think about the issues, because we have to take into account that every detail IS intentional.

uses those similarities and differences to tease out an understanding of her father, mother, and the world, working out her understanding of reality through its relation to fiction and literature.

• I think these statements extend beyond this book, and is the reason for why people write, read, or create in general. We purposely seek to understand or come to terms with ourselves, reality, as well as the people around us and the world.

other notes:

– role of literature + fiction / self conscious treatment

• as if she and her family is so obsessed with the literature, they begin to assume the character of the characters in the works.
• “a way to hide or deny truth or reality” litcharts
• “Good Husband And Father mask becomes a suffocating, shame-shielding lie that invades every part of his life, including the design of his house.” litcharts
• “memory is imperfect and she can only speak to her own perceptions” litcharts
• OCD shining through due to the fact that she always mentioning her awareness of the unreliability of her memories etc.

DIANA:

– none of the references come to a definite statement, it’s always a “maybe” or a “what if”

– bechdel’s mother = fiction to escape reality; alison + father = fiction to communicate + build themselves

– Icarus + Daedalus is first and last reference