Narrating Anorexia in Graphic Novels: A Body-Space Analysis

Barbara Grüning examines the representation of embodiment in fictional and autobiographical graphic narratives about anorexia to show how the so-called anorexic body is not just a surface bearing specific meanings but also a vector of knowledge. Most discourses on anorexia circulating in the transnational public sphere share a similar iconography, based on timeless images of skinny bodies. Graphic narrative representation of mental and physical disease has a long history that has changed over time, particularly with the emergence of the autobiographical genre in the 1970s. Grüning analyzes fictional and autobiographical graphic narratives published since 2000 in English, German, French and Italian from eight countries (England, United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy). Fictional graphic narratives generally describe anorexia as limited in time, related to defined social causes, and concluded for the main characters as a specific phase of life. Conversely, autobiographical graphic narratives use innovative methods to create a sense of spatial and temporal disorientation toward the social world that mimics the experiences of the narrators. These life stories open an interpretative space to readers that presents the complexity of living with anorexia, stressing the impossibility of neatly confined narratives.