Crip-Queer Ethics of Care in Amruta Patil’s Kari and Sybil Lamb’s I’ve Got a Time Bomb

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay examines how crip-queer ethics of care is represented in two case studies from contemporary feminist graphic fiction. A comparative textual and theoretical analysis is conducted to examine diverse queer communities represented in Amruta Patil’s graphic novel Kari and Sybil Lamb’s illustrated novel I’ve Got a Time Bomb. Both novels use crip-queer aesthetics to deconstruct gender binaries and pave the way for a more radical, fluid, and inclusive culture. Using Robert McRuer, Carrie Sandahl, and Jack Halberstam’s theories of gender and disability, the essay examines how Patil and Lamb create protagonists that combat the very category of the “normative” in white heterosexist patriarchy. It reveals how a crip-queer ethics of care can create the possibility for more emancipated futures for the transnational queer and trans communities.