Review: Multimodal Literacies and Graphic Memoirs: Using Alison Bechdel in the Classroom

In Dale Jacobs\u27 Graphic Encounters, he discusses the importance of [c]omplicating the view of comics so that they are not seen as simply an intermediary step to more complex word-based texts (17). Jacobs writes that comics\u27 readers require use of the visual, gestural, and spatial elements displayed in the panels and gutter space on a page in order to truly understand a text (14). Alison Bechdel\u27s graphic memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother? further complicate the literacies needed to understand comics as she layers her memoirs with archival, literacy, and psychoanalytic figures and concepts. More than a book about her family, Bechdel\u27s memoirs look closely at sexuality, relationships, and self-realization within herself and others. As Jacobs\u27 work attests, graphic memoirs like Bechdel\u27s are both interesting reads and valuable pedagogical tools. Brought into the composition classroom, these memoirs provide entry points into discussions of literacy acquisition and the writing process, research and source material, and multimodal meaning-making practices