Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

• Genre: Nonfiction; graphic memoir
• Originally Published: 2006
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 7 chapters; approx. 232 pages
• Central Concern: Alison Bechdel comes out as a lesbian in college. Not long after, she learns her father is also gay. When he dies a few weeks later, he leaves a mystery for Alison to resolve.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Death of a parent; homophobia; lesbophobia; parental mistreatment; pedophilia; suicide; graphic sex              

Alison Bechdel, Author

• Bio: Born in 1960; American cartoonist; studied studio arts and art history at Oberlin College; came out as a lesbian at 19; her sexuality and gender non-conformity often influence her work; began a comic strip called Dykes to Watch Out For in 1983; came to critical and commercial success with the publication of Fun Home; invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary in 2006; Mellon Residential Fellow for Arts and Practice at the University of Chicago in 2012; MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient in 2014; known for creating the Bechdel test; Vermont’s third Cartoonist Laureate as of 2017; lives in Bolton, Vermont
• Other Works: The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For (2008); Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama (2012); The Secret to Superhuman Strength (2021)
• Awards: Eisner Award (2007); Stonewall Book Award (2007)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Closeted Queerness and Queer Experience
• Dichotomies and Parallels
• Artifice and Self-Expression

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the literary allusions and social contexts that appear and inform Bechdel’s narrative storytelling.
• Discuss paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Closeted Queerness and Queer Experience and Artifice and Self-Expression.
• Analyze the recurring symbols and themes to draw conclusions about character development and motivations in structured essay responses regarding Alison and Bruce.