Visualizing the Spaces of Childhood in Graphic Memoirs

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

In this chapter, the author explores the process of remembering and representing childhood in autobiographical projects. How do authors call to mind childhood memories and represent them in ways that make them credible to readers? How are those memories documented? To address these questions, Maynes focuses not on conventional text autobiographies, but rather on graphic memoirs. This genre began to flourish only in the late twentieth century; the particular histories of childhood it can inform are those of a more recent era. However, the genre has also gone global, making possible broad cross-regional comparisons of childhood. Maynes examines a selection of six graphic memoirs by authors born in different regions (the U.S., South Africa, East and Southeast Asia) between 1945 and 1960. Her focus is on how the authors reconstruct and document childhood memories through images-attempts to convey what they saw through their own eyes as children-and in particular, how their ways of representing the spaces of childhood vary across their quite different global-historical locations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationChildren and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents
Subtitle of host publicationInnovative Approaches to Research Across Space and Time
EditorsDeborah Levison, Mary Jo Maynes, Frances Vavrus
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages47-68
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)9783030636326
ISBN (Print)9783030636319
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 15 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.

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