Writing the self, drawing the self: Identity and self-reflexivity in Craig Thompson's graphic memoir Blankets

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify some of the key conventions and narrative patterns that graphic memoirists may use in order to articulate their own sense of identity, and deal with issues of truth, ethics, and representation through visual and verbal combinations. Craig Thompson's Blankets (2003) serves as a poignant example of the semiotic resources that are relevant to an analysis of the autobiographical comics genre: the inscription of subjectivity and the spatial dimension of temporality. Drawing on Charles Hatfield's critical model (2005), this article examines the various ways graphic narratives mediate identity, enter into (and out of) autobiographical pacts, and «perform» authenticity.