Queering the museum: challenging heteronormative space in Bechdel's Fun Home

Abstract

In this paper I argue that Allison Bechdel's memoir/graphic novel Fun Home challenges heteronormative notions of sexuality by using the graphic novel genre as a museum-like space to present gay and lesbian culture. Bechdel uses the subjectivity of memoir to subjectify the museum-like space of her book, which challenges Frederic Jameson's heteronormative notion that postmodern space is highly objectified and without subjective possibilities. I use queer theorists, notably Judith Halberstam, to counter Jameson's notions of heteronormative, objective postmodern theory and offer a critique that postmodern space can also be a site for queer counterpublics, or a place for counter-cultural and subjective activity that challenges hetero-norms, or ingrained cultural norms aligned along patriarchic dictation. Finally, I argue that Bechdel's national bestseller gives voice to the usually suppressed gay and lesbian cultural experience, and that through the graphic novel and memoir genres, a large and popular audience hears this voice. Hence, Fun Home becomes a site where suppressed and dominant cultures collide.