Double take: ephemera and viewpoint construction in graphic memoir

Abstract

ABSTRACT Within narratology, viewpoint construction refers to the perspective from which the story is told and examines the interplay of narrative levels, including metafictive intrusion and fictional characters speaking directly to the reader. This research looks beyond narratology’s focus on the linguistic means of viewpoint construction through the examination of graphic memoir and ephemera. Graphic memoir provides fertile ground for the exploration into the ways in which creators of comics and other visual narrative establish, challenge, and extend narrative viewpoint. This article aims to navigate the use of ephemera in graphic memoir including, personal diaries, photo albums, and newspaper clippings. I begin by summarising viewpoint construction from a narratological perspective and then discuss the works of Art Spiegelman and Alison Bechdel. I then turn my attention to The Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell and discuss how ephemera is used to invoke the elusive, fragmentary, and embodied nature of memory and identity via a process of narrative embedding. I conclude that the use of ephemera invokes multiperspectivity and mise en abyme, making it a valuable multimodal tool for the analysis of viewpoint construction in graphic memoir.