Maguire, Emma (2015) Potential: Ariel Schrag Contests (Hetero-)Normative Girlhood. In: Cardell, Kylie, and Douglas, Kate, (eds.) Telling Tales: Autobiographies of Childhood and Youth. Routledge, Abingdon, UK, pp. 53-65.

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Abstract

Using the medium of graphic memoir, 17-year-old Ariel Schrag brings to life an alternative to heteronormative mainstream representations of girlhood, and in self-publishing at such a young age, she also takes charge of her own representation and the circulation of that representation as a teenage girl. With an emphasis on the enabling formal characteristics of comics medium, I consider how the young author addresses the representation of her girlhood sexuality in light of theories of girlhood and girls' media-making practices. Specifically, I position Potential as “risk-taking self-representation” that creates space for marginal girlhoods to be articulated and explored via the “inventive textual practice” of comics (Chute 26) by articulating a lesbian identity in the symbolic and protected spaces of adolescent rites of passage. Drawing on Judith Halberstam's The Queer Art of Failure, I explore how representations of failure in Schrag's depictions of prom work to open up alternative possibilities for adolescent femininity and sexuality.

Item ID:	57256
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Later Edition)
ISBN:	9781138774988
Keywords:	queer theory, autobiography, life narrative, graphic memoir, memoir, comics, graphic narrative, failure, sexuality, identity, youth, girlhood
Copyright Information:	© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
Additional Information:	The chapters in this book were originally published in Prose Studies, volume 35, issue 1 (April 2013). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article.
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2023 01:15
FoR Codes:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200599 Literary Studies not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950203 Languages and Literature @ 100%
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