Reframing Disability through Graphic Novels for Girls: Alternative Bodies in Cece Bell’s El Deafo

Smith-D'Arezzo, Wendy M.; Holc, Janine

doi:10.3167/ghs.2016.090106

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…According to Smith-D' Arezzo and Holc (2016), Bell centres her narrative around the representation of "girlhood, " considering age, gender, and disability as intersecting aspects, resulting in her acceptance of new corporeality (73). Bell depicts her urge as a deaf girl to make friends and confront any girl's difficulties in a realistic setting, even though class and race have not been fully explored (72).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-reflexive Anthropomorphism in Cece Bell’s Autobiographical Comics: A Study of the Transgressions of Narrative Levels

Takakura¹

2023

R. Ilha do Desterro A J. of En. Language Lit. in English and Cu

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Cece Bell released her autobiographical comic El Deafo (2014) in print and digital versions, transposing herself into the anthropomorphic rabbit Cece, who speaks of her hearing loss experience at four after having contracted meningitis. Young Cece wears a hearing aid on her long rabbit ears, showing her animal, human, and technological hybrid body to others. Nevertheless, she assumes the identity of the superhero “El Deafo,” her alter-ego, to cope with her daily challenges in a community composed mostly of hearing individuals, first as an escape to her imaginary world and later for accepting her identity as deaf. This paper aims to analyse El Deafo as an autobiographical comic, considering the representation of deafness through an unstable hybrid body and a transgression of the narrative levels based on the notion of metalepsis, drawn by Genette, Kukkonen, and Ryan in various media.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%