Guest Lecture: PD Dr. Alexander Dunst (Universität Paderborn): “Fun Home, the Bechdel Test, and the Social Imagination of the Graphic Memoir”

Guest Lecture: PD Dr. Alexander Dunst (Universität Paderborn):
“Fun Home, the Bechdel Test, and the Social Imagination of the Graphic Memoir”

Making its debut in a one-page comics titled “The Rule” in 1985, what later became known as the Bechdel test after its creator has turned into a shorthand for the presentation of female characters in contemporary culture. Despite its enduring popularity, the theoretical assumptions guiding Alison Bechdel’s feminist intervention have been discussed less frequently. With Scott Selisker, this talk considers the Bechdel test as “a vernacular form of the digital humanities” and uses the test’s conviction in the benefits of counting to put forward an intersectional network analysis of selected graphic memoirs, including Bechdel’s own Fun Home. In particular, what interests me here is what I will call the “social imagination” of graphic memoirs, of which two aspects will be considered: First, the representation of female, non-white, and working-class characters and secondly, the vexed question of the memoir’s claims to realism.

The talk will take place in C301. Everyone is invited to join! Please register via e-mail to katharina.gerund@fau.de