Emerging Multimedia Narratives: Scrapbooks as Graphic Memoir
September 15, 2009
Ashley Reynolds
Walter Hesford
I have studied novels, short stories and poems for the past three years at the University of Idaho. There is no doubt that they enchant me, and I could easily study them for fifty more years. But…there is something about my study of literature that is not satisfied with mere print. I have learned techniques to analyze and interpret stories, and stories are told in a multitude of ways. Alan Purves wrote, “We make a grave mistake if we see literature only as print; it has been only print for a brief period, two hundred years. For our students, and to a great extent for us, literature is a multimedia affair; this fact is at the heart of our personal and collective canon. All media should be at the heart of our literature classes.” I have continually thought and obsessed over this multimedia approach to literature, what it means and how it can be implemented into my education.
One of the most inspiring classes I have taken was Honors English 404: Graphic Novels, taught by Walter Hesford. My eyes were opened to a new form of storytelling. Dave Eggers wrote, “The graphic novel is not literary fiction’s half-wit cousin, but, more accurately, the mutant sister who can often do everything fiction can, and, just as often, more.” Graphic novels marry text and image, creating a form that is a true representation of our continually more visual culture. Graphic memoir was born out of this form, and some of my personal favorites fall under this category: Persepolis, Blankets, Maus and Fun Home. Upon a close reading, I noticed a third form of storytelling being used– one that is often disregarded – scrapbooking.
Scrapbooking itself is a multimedia form; it encompasses photography, graphic design, journaling, poetry and collage, which is perhaps my draw to it. I would like to explore the form of scrapbooking through a literary lens. Initial research presented a rich American history and some feminist controversy. The project will entail a lot of “weaving,” but I have faith in its possibilities.
Current Project:
I have met with Walter Hesford, whom I have asked to be my mentor because of his specialty in graphic novels. He offered me much insight and inspiration. I have also met with Rochelle Smith; she is a reference librarian with research interests of her own rooted in the arts and crafts movement in the United States. She provided invaluable help finding a great deal of research both on the art and history of scrapbooking, graphic novels and memoirs.
I need to begin the dive into my research and making sense of this broad and complex topic. I also want to express that it is very important to me to do more than simply prove that scrapbooking is literature - I want to explore how it functions in literature and culture and why. I find myself asking the following questions: In what ways did the graphic memoir borrow from the form of scrapbooking? Is scrapbooking literature? What do scrapbooking elements add to stories? Why is scrapbooking so easily dismissed in modern culture? Scrapbooking has recently experienced a split into those who call themselves art journalers and those who call themselves scrapbookers; why is this, and what is the future of the form? Why has it traditionally been women? Is it better or worse that it is a collage of forms, i.e. interdisciplinary? What canonical concern does this raise? And after some inspiration from Walter, in what ways is a scrapbooker a “bricoleur” and what does this mean from a literary theory perspective? I hope to answer many of these questions through my exploration.
Plan:
Professor Hesford was invaluable in the process of sorting through all my abstract thoughts and creating the following concrete plan. First, I want to give my project a historical and cultural background. Second, I want to explore why this form has been dismissed (discussed ideas include sentimentality and “low” art). I want to disprove the dismissal of scrapbooking as a viable narrative form through feminist theory (discussed sources include Tompkins, Gilligan and Quilting Theory). Walter has also challenged me to explore the scrapbooker as the “bricoleur” – a jack-of-all-trades and embracer of the multimedia form. Finally, I want to put this into practice. I want to apply all of this to a recent graphic memoir. I had four in mind, but Walter suggested choosing one would allow for more depth. I am currently leaning towards Alison Bechdel’s masterpiece, Fun Home. Not only does it have several examples of scrapbook techniques in it, but it also features similar themes to my research - feminism and storytelling. In the conclusion of my work, I would like to speculate the future of scrapbooking as a tour de literary force.
Presentation:
By the end of the semester, I will create a twenty-page academic paper
exploring this topic in a new way. It seems impossible to truly understand my
research without visual examples, so my presentation will be rich with image. In
true form (pun intended), I would also like to develop an actual scrapbook of my
project, and it would present my work in a visually stimulating way that
exemplifies the possibilities of this new media.
Tentative Bibliography:
Abel, Jessica and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. New York: First Second, 2008.
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Dumont, Jean-Paul. “Who are the Bricoleurs?” The American Journal of Semiotics. 3.3 (1985): 29-50.
Freedman, Diane P. The Intimate Critique. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993.
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Gilligan, Carol. Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women’s Thinking to Psychological Theory and Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Gravett, Paul. Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know. New York: Harper Collins, 2005.
Helfand, Jessica. Scrapbooks: An American History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Hof, Karina. “Something You Can Actually Pick Up: Scrapbooking as a Form and Forum of Cultural Citizenship.” European Journal of Cultural Studies. G.3 (2006): 363-384.
Kincheloe, Joe L. “On to the Next Level: Continuing the Conceptualization of Bricolage.” Qualitative Inquiry. 11.3 (2005): 323-250.
Kuipers, Juliana M. “Scrapbooks: Intrinsic Value and Material Culture.” Journal of Archival Organization. 2.3 (2004): 83-91.
Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968.
Parameswaran, Uma. Quilting a New Canon: Stitching Women’s Words. Sister Vision Press, 1996.
Purves, Alan. “Telling Our Story about Teaching Literature.” Falling into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature. Ed. David H. Richter. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
Rugg, Linda Haverty. Picturing Ourselves: Photography and Autobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Stephens, Mitchell. The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction 1790-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Tucker, Susan, Katherine Ott and Patricia Buckler. The Scrapbook in American Life. New York: Temple University Press, 2006.
Whitlock, Gillian and Anna Poletti. “Self-Regarding Art.” Biography 31.1 (2008): v-xxiii.